Trudeau to a world summit on the immunization with the hope of doses in the fall

The british prime minister, Boris Johnson, will chair the world Summit on the vaccination, but the emergence of Justin Trudeau comes at a time when Canada wishes to hold a non-permanent seat in the security Council of the united Nations.

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June 3, 2020 18h36

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Trudeau to a world summit on the immunization with the hope of doses in the fall

Mike Blanchfield

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – tens of millions of doses of vaccine against the COVID-19 could be deployed as early as this fall, but they should ensure that they are distributed equitably around the world, in particular in the poorest countries, it was argued in some circles.

Great Britain will host on Thursday an international conference of”pledges”, which aims to raise almost $ 10 billion to GAVI Alliance vaccine, the main international agency for distribution of vaccines in less-developed countries, created 20 years ago.

The prime minister Justin Trudeau will join Thursday in a virtual way with the leaders of 50 countries and large organisations, including philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Canada has already announced a commitment of $ 600 million over five years to GAVI, which has vaccinated 760 million children and prevented 13 million deaths in the poorest countries of the world since 2000.

The british prime minister, Boris Johnson, will chair the world Summit on the vaccination, but the appearance of Mr. Trudeau comes at a time when Canada wishes to hold a non-permanent seat in the security Council of the united Nations. Mr. Trudeau has also pronounced on Wednesday a speech at a summit of the Organization of African States, the Caribbean and the Pacific, where he stated that Canada was determined to help the developing countries, the hardest hit by the pandemic.

We should pledge at the London summit that any new vaccine against the COVID-19 will also be distributed in the poor countries – to avoid, in fact, the earlier practices, including during the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009.

“We also want to send a clear message to the market : that there will be a market for this vaccine in the developing world, and there will be an organization that will be able to distribute this vaccine,” said Wednesday in an interview to the canadian minister of international Development, Karina Gould. “This is different, in this pandemic, it is that we are talking about vaccinating the whole world. It is on a scale we had not imagined before, because the vaccination campaigns earlier were generally targeted.”

To the highest bidder?

The ambassador columbia, Canada has said that 30 million doses of a vaccine could be available in his country as early as September, due to the fast pace of clinical trials conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford in the framework of a joint venture funded by the government with AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company in the british and Swedish.

The high-commissioner Susan Young of Allegeershecque explained in an interview that Britain wanted to ensure that “this is not the one who will have the biggest cheque in hand that will get the first bite”. The british diplomat, admits that all governments will want to first meet their own national needs. “But at the same time, those of us who are members of the G7 and the G20 certainly keep in mind the need for broader, global scale. We don’t do one at the expense of the other.”

According to Stuart Hickox, executive director of the organization “One Campaign” in Canada, “people need to understand that there will be no economic recovery if the pandemic continues to rage in developing countries or elsewhere in the world.”

The american network CNN announced Tuesday that dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the national Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, had predicted that the United States would have 100 million doses of a viable vaccine by the end of the year.

Its counterpart in canada, dr. Theresa Tam, director-in-chief of the public health, estimates that there are currently over 100 “candidate vaccines” in development in the world. “Of course, we look beyond the research and clinical trials, to examine the actual capacity of development and manufacturing of vaccines,” she said.

A handful of serious candidates

Dr. Gary Kobinger, infectious disease specialist at the University of Laval, who is leading a team that has developed vaccine against Ebola, has said that the hundred or so candidates for the vaccine must be reduced to a handful of good options. “It is a race against the virus, not against each other, he argued in an interview. Regardless of the country, the international resources are limited, the clinical sites are limited.”

Mr. Trudeau is positioned as a leader to develop a plan to revive the world “post pandemic”, while Canada is in competition with Norway and Ireland to one of the two seats contestable and non-permanent security Council of the united Nations. The UN confirmed on Wednesday that the secret ballot of the 193 ambassadors would begin as scheduled on 17 June, but without the plenary meeting of the general Assembly, due to the pandemic.

The main agencies of the united Nations, the world health Organization, and the leaders of african countries are also participating in the London summit on vaccines, on Thursday. During the month of may, Mr. Trudeau has played a leading role in summits similar to the european Union and the united nations.

Le Soleil