According to the coronavirus statistics released by Johns Hopkins University on the 15th, the cumulative number of deaths worldwide exceeds 2 million.
Since the beginning of this year, many countries around the world have strengthened social distancing, immigration management and other prevention and control measures, and launched large-scale vaccination of the novel coronavirus vaccine.
However, the huge global demand gap for vaccines, the mutation of the novel coronavirus in many parts of the world, and the continued unilateralism and “vaccine nationalism” of individual countries to fight against the pandemic, the global anti-pandemic prospects are still unspeakably optimistic in the short term.
In a video statement, United Nations Secretary-General Guterres said that the node of 2 million cases was “heartbreaking” and that “in order to commemorate these 2 million lives, the world must strengthen its efforts, unite more and join hands to fight the pandemic”.
Virus mutation tests the fight against the pandemic
According to the data, the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide has exceeded 93 million so far.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths in the United States is the highest in the world, with more than 23 million and nearly 390,000 respectively; India and Brazil rank second and third in the world in total number of confirmed cases; Europe has encountered a major response from the pandemic and has become the “epicenter” again; the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Latin America and Africa exceeds 15 million and 3 million cases…
Since the beginning of the year, the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide has continued to rise sharply, and the number of deaths has also remained high.
According to British media statistics, the coronavirus has claimed an average of more than 11,900 lives every day into 2021.
The mutation of the virus has complicated the pandemic.
Since the United Kingdom reported the discovery of more transmitted variant viruses at the end of last year, several countries and regions have reported cases of variant virus infections found in the United Kingdom, and other versions of variant viruses have been found in some countries.
Klug, director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, recently pointed out that by 2021, the world has new tools such as vaccines to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but it is also facing new challenges such as virus mutation.
variant viruses are more infectious, and if not controlled to slow their spread, it will have a greater impact on the currently under pressure of the medical system.
Henry Walker, the head of the coronavirus pandemic at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, believes that more variant viruses may be available over time.
Joining hands to fight against the pandemic is the right way.
To make the pandemic prevention and control worse, the politicization of the pandemic, the labeling of the virus, and the “vaccine nationalism” and other actions make the road to global unity and fight against the pandemic thorny.
In the United States, where the pandemic is the worst, the growing social division has caused the fight against the pandemic to be full of loopholes. It is difficult to coordinate between states, local governments and the federal government around pandemic prevention measures, resumption of work and production, vaccination, and distribution of medical resources.
Unilateralism and “blaming the blame” seriously interfere with the overall situation of global anti-pandemic. “America first” has become a “stumbling block” to global anti-pandemic cooperation. According to the report “Top Ten World Risks in the World 2021” released by the U.S. political risk consulting company Eurasia Group, many global risks such as the coronavirus crisis are inseparable from the United States.
In addition, although the advent of the novel coronavirus vaccine and the large-scale vaccination have brought hope for the world to overcome the pandemic, at least for now, global vaccine demand still faces a huge gap.
Guterres said that high-income countries are quickly obtaining a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Some countries have purchased vaccines that exceed their own needs, while the poorest countries are not available.
He urged vaccine manufacturers to make a commitment to ensure adequate supply and equitable distribution of vaccines.
Guterres is also worried about the issue of “vaccine nationalism”.
He said that although governments have the responsibility to protect their people, pursuing “vaccine nationalism” is counterproductive and will delay the global economic recovery.
The issue of “vaccine nationalism” or “vaccine nationalism” is of great concern to the international community.
A report by RAND at the end of last year revealed that some developed countries purchased vaccines in large quantities internationally, which not only makes economically underdeveloped countries unable to control the pandemic because of difficulties in obtaining vaccines, but also disrupts the overall global fight against the pandemic.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Tedros also said at a press conference on the 8th of this month that the equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine among high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries is becoming a major challenge.
Currently, 42 countries are promoting COVID-19 vaccination, of which 36 are high-income countries and the remaining 6 are middle-income countries. And low-income countries and most middle-income countries have still not started vaccination.
“‘Vaccine Nationalism’ will hurt us all while also making people suffer.” Tedros stressed.
