‘No Nation Can Fight Pandemic Alone’– Bill Gates Foundations Calls For Global Effort Against COVID-19

The Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (BMGH) has called for collective efforts of all nations to end the covid-19 pandemic and begin rebuilding economies.

This was contained in a recent edition of the 2020 Goalkeepers Report, themed, ‘COVID-19: A Global Perspective’.

The report measured the progress of countries in relation to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, and the effect of coronavirus on different sectors worldwide.

According to the report “there is no such thing as a national solution to a global crisis”, stating the need for collective efforts to rebuild national economies.

The report said with a total of over 850,000 deaths across the globe, the virus has plunged the world into a recession that is likely to get worse, adding that many countries are bracing for another surge in cases.

“Mutually exacerbating catastrophes is an apt description for the COVID-19 pandemic, too. First, there was the disease itself. Then, governments moved resources to try to manage it and people stopped seeking health care to avoid being infected, building blocks of a comprehensive health catastrophe.

“Consider vaccine coverage, which is a good proxy measure for how health systems are functioning. Our data partner, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), found that in 2020, coverage is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s.

“In other words, we’ve been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks. One of the most important questions the world now faces is how quickly low-income countries can catch back up to where they were and start making progress again,” the report said.

The foundation said the most affected countries would need support to make sure that what should be temporary reversals would not become permanent.

The report stressed the need for global collaboration, saying “there was no such thing as a national solution to a global crisis” because the longer it will take, the more costly it will take nations to stand again.

The BMGF noted that the race for a COVID-19 vaccine must be a collective task by all governments and when the vaccine eventually arrives, it should be distributed to countries based on population and their COVID-19 burden and not on income.