The group of the large industrial nations (G7) wants to prevent a new pandemic by all means. To this end, the heads of state and government want to adopt a “health declaration from Carbis Bay” at their summit in south-west England, as the British G7 presidency announced on Saturday night. It is planned to reduce the development of vaccines, treatment methods and diagnoses for future diseases to less than 100 days.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the successes in research and production of vaccines. “But to actually beat the coronavirus and recover, we need to prevent pandemics like this from ever happening again.” Lessons would have to be drawn from the past year and a half.
Global early warning systems are to be strengthened, as are the options for so-called genome sequencing, which enables virus variants to be tracked down. The World Health Organization (WHO) is to be reformed and strengthened, as it was said. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the statement. “Together we must build on the substantial scientific and collaborative response to the coronavirus pandemic and find joint solutions to fill many of the gaps that have been identified.”
In order to respond to future pandemics, a new international advisory group is also presenting a report to the heads of state and government. “The first 100 days after an epidemic threat is identified are crucial to change course and, ideally, to prevent it from becoming a pandemic,” it said beforehand.
London also announced the establishment of a new institute to research vaccinations for livestock and thus prevent so-called zoonoses from developing. These are diseases that spread from animals to humans such as Covid-19, Ebola and avian flu. “75 percent of new human diseases come from animals, and these diseases are spreading increasingly,” it said in support. These diseases are a risk to humans as well as to global agriculture.
In addition to hosts Great Britain, the G7 group also includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the USA. The EU is also participating. Like-minded democratic states such as South Korea, South Africa, Australia and India are invited as guests to the summit, which will last until Sunday.
From: APA / dpa
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