The United States is providing to countries combating the virus more funding, equipment, and support than any other nation. This is what the United States does in times of crisis, because we have a positive vision and a commitment to strengthen our friends, not take advantage of their misfortunes.
Distinguished leaders and fellow ministers, as we come together today, we face a health challenge unprecedented in our lifetimes. COVID-19 has caused death and economic destruction in all of our countries. As we continue working together to defeat this pandemic, I want my fellow Health Ministers in particular to know that they can count on the cooperation of the United States in defeating this threat, with no strings attached.
The 1918 influenza pandemic took tens of millions of lives across the globe. Then, as now, we face a dangerous pandemic that has no regard for borders or nationality. But there is a difference: We have tools to fight this pandemic that our predecessors did not have.
The U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed has supported six different vaccine candidates, three of which have now reported promising data less than a year after the virus was made known globally. This is a stunning, unprecedented scientific achievement that will bring benefits to the entire world. Because of the ingenuity of American industry and our counterparts in democracies around the world, I have every reason to believe that more good news about vaccines and other countermeasures is on the way.
As was the case in 1918, information about the virus was not made widely available until the pandemic was raging across the globe. But there is no excuse for this today. In 1918, we did not have modern communication technologies. We did not have effective international frameworks for sharing information. We did not have the International Health Regulations.
The key issue is not where the virus first appeared—it is whether information about the virus was shared in a timely and transparent way. Sadly, the necessary information sharing did not happen, and this dereliction of duty has been absolutely devastating for the entire globe.
Unfortunately, we are not much closer today to the transparent information sharing that we need. The World Health Assembly directed WHO to undertake an investigation into the origins of the virus, but the results are not expected until next year—an unacceptable timeframe. Even worse, international experts will be expected just to review the conclusions of one country’s experts—far from the kind of collaborative spirit we need to get to the truth.
Sadly, some countries have also attempted to take advantage of the pandemic to pursue economic, diplomatic, or security gains with hard-hit countries. The United States has taken a different path. Our work on vaccines for COVID-19 has been fully transparent, and we will follow all the usual and stringent American safety and quality protocols to produce countermeasures that the whole world can trust. The United States will make these tools available to our partners and friends once we take care of the American people.
The United States is providing to countries combating the virus more funding, equipment, and support than any other nation. This is what the United States does in times of crisis, because we have a positive vision and a commitment to strengthen our friends, not take advantage of their misfortunes.
The reality is that no one is safe from COVID-19 until we all are safe, and that goal can only be reached through open and transparent cooperation. I trust that, working together, we will defeat COVID-19 and return to a semblance of normalcy in the months ahead.
Thank you for your partnership in that endeavor.
