The ministers of Foreign Affairs and Health of the European Union met today in the French city of Lyon to define a common strategy to deal with future pandemics.
European coordination to address future pandemics
At the meeting, the Spanish Minister of Health, Carolyn Reese, has bet on a endemic surveillance model of coronavirus. “The pandemic has more and more endemic characteristics and therefore we have to go to a new surveillance model,” he said.
In addition, it has appealed to the joint coordination from the Community bloc on Health: “We have learned many things, including that joint and coordinated action has allowed us to respond. Progress must be made in the construction of the EU of health and in the extension of universal health coverage as a differentiating element ” of the European welfare state.
Spanish vaccine
Darias has also shown his optimism for the vaccine developed in Spain, Hipra. “We have to vaccinate everyone, but also facilitate the manufacture of vaccines in the corners where it is most difficult, and there Spain has a leading role with the new Hipra vaccine that we are hopeful that it will be the European vaccine that we were all waiting for”.
European commissioner calls for prudence
For her part, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, has been more cautious and has acknowledged that, although the rate of hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus is stabilizing, caution still needs to be maintained.
“The biggest challenges we face in health are common and can only be addressed and overcome working shoulder to shoulder. Europe is committed to playing its role in strengthening the health security architecture,” said Kyriakides.
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