The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
G7 leaders in pact to stop pandemics in under 100 days
Leaders from the G7 will commit to a new plan to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days.
The world’s leading democracies gathered in Cornwall will agree the Carbis Bay Declaration today, promising a series of measures to prevent a repeat of the Covid-19 crisis.
The UK will also create a new animal vaccine centre aimed at preventing future diseases crossing from creatures to humans.
Government chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and philanthropist Melinda French Gates will present findings from their work on the pandemic preparedness partnership to the leaders of the G7 nations and guests today.
The Carbis Bay Declaration will incorporate the recommendations of their findings, which highlight the fact that the first 100 days after the identification of an epidemic threat are crucial to changing its course and preventing it from becoming a pandemic.
The leaders of the G7 – the UK, US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy – will commit to measures aimed at slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days.
They will also promise to reinforce global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity and support reforming and strengthening the World Health Organisation.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “In the last year the world has developed several effective coronavirus vaccines, licensed and manufactured them at pace and is now getting them into the arms of the people who need them.
“But to truly defeat coronavirus and recover we need to prevent a pandemic like this from ever happening again. That means learning lessons from the last 18 months and doing it differently next time around.”
Meanwhile Mr Johnson will meet the European Union’s key players as the dispute over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements deepened.
He will hold talks with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, European Council head Charles Michel, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Number 10 again indicated the UK would be prepared to unilaterally delay the full implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent a ban on chilled meats crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain at the end of the month.
Such a move risks triggering a “sausage war” trade dispute, with the EU threatening to respond to any breach of the deal.
Mr Johnson suggested the EU was taking an “excessively burdensome” approach to post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The EU could retaliate against Britain if it fails to implement checks on goods entering Northern Ireland under the terms of the Brexit “divorce” settlement Mr Johnson signed.
It effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the European single market in order to avoid a hard border with Ireland, meaning a trade barrier in the Irish Sea for goods crossing from Great Britain.