Johnson: Vaccine is endeavour of our lives

Boris Johnson will today describe the race to develop a coronavirus -vaccine as ‘‘the most urgent shared -endeavour of our lifetimes’’ as he urges countries not to see it as a competition.

The prime minister will cohost a virtual Coronavirus Global Response -International Pledging Conference, aiming to raise £7 billion (NZ$14.5b) to develop vaccines, treatments and tests to help end the Covid-19 pandemic. Johnson is expected to say: ‘‘To win this battle, we must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people, and that can only be achieved by developing and mass -producing a vaccine. The more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed. The race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries, but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes. It’s humanity against the virus – we are in this together, and together we will prevail.’’

The US will not attend today’s summit. President Donald Trump has instead said his focus is ‘‘Operation Warp Speed’’, which aims to have enough doses to cover most Americans by the end of this year, sparking concerns he

is adopting an ‘‘America First’’ approach. In March the German newspaper Die Welt reported the Trump administration has offered a German medical company ‘‘large sums of money’’ for exclusive access to a vaccine.

Senior Tory MPs have also warned that Britain could be ‘‘at the back of the queue’’ if China was first on a vaccine. One former Tory minister told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘The US and China are both outside of this coalition. If the US gets it first, I am sure we will be up there in the queue. If China gets it first, there’s simply no chance it’s going to come this far west. It will go to all the other countries that have been less critical about China.’’

A government source added: ‘‘If China starts to manufacture it [a vaccine] at scale, we are not taking it for granted that China would start to share it with other countries.’’ Downing Street said that Jonhson’s words were not aimed at any one country.

The comments came after Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, suggested that life in the UK would not return to how it was before the pandemic until a vaccine was developed.

Asked at the daily press conference when life will return to normal, Gove said: ‘‘Unless and until we have a vaccine I suspect that we are going to have to live with some degree of constraint.’’

Most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by the middle of next year, around 12 to 18 months after the new virus first emerged.

‘‘It’s humanity against the virus – we are in this together, and together we will prevail.’’

Boris Johnson UK prime minister