This twelfth edition of the World Health Summit is anything but business as usual. With all continents hit by COVID-19 in 2020, this World Health Summit is the first one since the World Health Organization has characterized this virus as a pandemic. [ Ссылка ] #eudebates #NextGenerationEU #MFF #EUbudget #Covid_19 #coronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #Corona #COVD19 #Health
From all over the world, health experts and leaders are gathering this year again in Berlin to draw the lessons and consequences of this pandemic. There is so much to be learnt and shared.
First, this pandemic has reminded us that health truly is multidimensional: a new virus, which no one had heard of this time last year, created a butterfly effect of vast outreaching health challenges spanning the globe. It required the coming together of many scientists, researchers, and medical professionals amongst many others to work around the clock to understand the virus, its progression to cause disease, and to develop vaccines and therapeutics. But also to inform health policies and guidance for our citizens, economies and societies.
The EU invested €459 million in grants for 103 new research projects, and by the end of 2020, the EU will invest €1 billion into research and innovation to tackle COVID-19. We are investing heavily in research and innovation but also in our Vaccines Strategy to boost production capacity of companies who will supply vaccines for both EU and non-EU countries.
Second, we need to be collectively much better prepared for future health challenges. We do not want to experience again shortages of personal protective equipment, intensive care units overflowing, and
healthcare professionals struggling to cope with the excessive demands. Global challenges associated with the climate, trade and health will continue to bring new and emerging global health challenges. The EU is ready to step up and take more responsibility in the health sector.
The third lesson is that when viruses go global, we need immediate global action to bring global solutions. Some very positive strides are being made: we raised nearly €16 billion under the Coronavirus Global Response through a global call for action. No country in the world, no Union is large and strong enough to address these challenges on their own. This is why the position of the European Commission is clear: we want to promote multilateral cooperation and improve and reform the World Health Organization to make it ready to face the health challenges of the twenty-first century, for the benefit of everyone on every continent.
We have all felt the impact of this pandemic in some form, and we can and we are coming together to overcome this terrible disease.
I wish each of you a healthy summit as well as an inspiring learning experience.
[ Ссылка ] #eudebates
President Steinmeier,
Secretary-General Gutteres,
Dr Tedros,
Distinguished guests,
I am honoured to be a patron of this year's World Health Summit.
And I am delighted to be able to speak to you today
- even if I wish it could be in person.
Last year's edition with more than 2,500 participants and 300 speakers from 100 nations feels difficult to imagine only twelve months on.
This event has long reflected the global and interconnected nature of health in the 21st century.
Looking back now, this is something I perhaps had not fully grasped as a student when I saw medicine primarily through a scientific lens.
And while I started to understand it more as a doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology, the nature of my work was still narrowly focused on the clinical and the individual.
It was only later, when working at the Department of Epidemiology at the Hanover Medical School, that I really learnt what global health meant.
And there is one story from the time - the story of an epidemiologist - that I think illustrates this better than I could explain.
It was back in February and March 2003, just as I was moving from medicine to become State Minister with responsibility for health amongst other things.
At the exact same time on the other side of the world, a SARS super-spreading event was taking place on the ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong.
Within days, the virus had spread as far as Singapore, Canada and Vietnam.
And it was there in Hanoi, that Dr. Carlo Urbani,
an infectious disease specialist was working for the WHO.
Here was an Italian doctor working in a French hospital in Vietnam, treating an American patient who himself had fallen sick in Hong Kong.
He recognised at first that this was a SARS-like respiratory disease.
And he was the first to trigger the alarm.
And in doing so he saved countless lives everywhere from Thailand to Toronto and probably far beyond.
I mention this story firstly to pay tribute to Dr Urbani who - as many of you will know - became infected shortly afterwards and sadly passed away leaving a young family behind.
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