Nations ramp up pandemic response
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and other leaders issued an urgent call Thursday for the world to step up its fight against COVID-19, and countries including Germany, Canada and Japan pledged large sums to finance tests, therapeutics and vaccines — a commitment Biden could not make because Congress has refused to authorize new pandemic aid.
As the United States approached a harrowing milestone — 1 million American lives lost to the virus — fear of another deadly variant loomed large over the president’s second global COVID-19 summit, a virtual gathering co-hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal.
Senior Biden administration officials said the summit produced more than $3 billion in commitments toward the global response and toward efforts to prevent future pandemics. That is far short of the $15 billion that the World Health Organization says is needed. But the summit did lay the groundwork for a new global preparedness fund.
The U.S. has shipped nearly 540 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries and territories, according to the State Department — far more than any other donor nation.
“There’s still so much left to do; this pandemic isn’t over,” Biden said in his opening remarks, adding, “We have to prevent complacency.”
He ordered flags lowered to half-staff and spoke solemnly of the once-unthinkable U.S. toll: “1 million empty chairs around the family dinner table.”
The coronavirus has killed more than 999,000 people in the U.S. and at least 6.2 million people globally since it emerged in late 2019, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
But the president’s tone was tepid when compared with some of the other participants, who included heads of state, global health officials and philanthropic leaders. Several, including Dr. Joy St. John, the executive director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, said that climate change was speeding up the cycle of pandemics, making the next outbreak inevitable.
“The next virus may kill even more people and cause even greater economic disruption,” she warned.