Nations back UN plan to speed wide rollout of COVID response

GENEVA — World leaders rallied around the United Nations on Friday for an initiative to help the most vulnerable countries gain access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatment tools for the coronavirus as soon as they emerge. “This is a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for COVID-19,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, hosting a parade of leaders by video conference. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said Italy was “grateful” to the WHO, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa praised Tedros’ “leadership” and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin of Malaysia hailed the U.N. as among the “most powerful modalities” to meet challenges posed by the pandemic. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been sitting in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from the coronavirus, said that “it’s only through coming together and collective solutions that we’ll be able to defeat this virus.. That’s why the U.K. is proud to support the WHO call to action.” Officials in the United States and China have pointed fingers at each other over the outbreak, denting international cooperation. “We remain deeply concerned about the WHO’s effectiveness, given that its gross failures helped fuel the current pandemic.” French President Emmanuel Macron, a key driver of the initiative, said he hoped the fight against COVID-19 will help reconcile China and the United States because “no division takes place” when it’s about “winning the battle.” Macron urged leaders of the world’s biggest economies to “show the world that it’s possible to succeed when we are all together and unite our forces.” He said the WHO initiative must rely on efficiently supporting medical systems across the world, making tests available including in the most fragile countries and investing more to develop treatments and vaccines.