Bill Gates at the UN General Assembly conference, revealing ways to end the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, there are three ways that everyone must do so that this pandemic can end soon.
"We are all in the 18th month of the COVID-19 pandemic, a grim milestone marked by other spikes in cases and deaths triggered by the emergence of the Delta variant. This global crisis has become a health, economic and moral catastrophe that is traveling in waves across every geography, without exception," said Bill Gates as quoted from Gates Notes, Wednesday (22/9/2021).
He said the way out of the pandemic always required one thing, namely a commitment to equality. Willingness to see that what happens in low-income countries affects high-income countries.
"There is no nationalistic solution to this global problem. We have seen countries try and fail to address it when variants emerge and threaten the development of the acute phase of the pandemic," he said.
According to him, there are three things that can be done in the coming months that could end the acute phase of the pandemic and set the world on a different timeline in preparation for the future.
1. Immediate Vaccination
Bill Gates called on governments and the private sector to work together to build more transparent systems to accelerate global vaccine supply.
"Supply shortages were a major problem in the first half of the year. But recently 41 million doses per day have been distributed globally. This is progress, but there is still a long way to go," said Bill Gates.
2. Disease Prevention
To reduce the risk of variants jumping from border to border, the world must invest in rapid testing, systems for sharing genetic sequences, and mechanisms to quickly deliver expertise and commodities such as oxygen, PPE, and life-saving drugs where they are needed.
"We've seen this work successfully with diseases like polio and malaria, using data to inform action to control outbreaks. We need to have expert support and response materials like oxygen, PPE and life-saving drugs ready to use in the event of an outbreak. big. The private sector has a role to play," he said.
3. Coordinate global response
The establishment of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) in early 2020 is a milestone: governments, international organizations and the private sector are united in responding to the crisis.
"We now need all governments to appoint global COVID-19 leaders, report to heads of state, and for these leaders to convene periodically through 2022," Bill Gates said.
With the support of independent monitoring, this globally coordinated, time-limited task force can complement ACT-A and lead us to end the pandemic through collective action and provide a model for the long-term coordination needed to prevent future pandemics.
"I hope that the leaders who met virtually this week at the COVID Summit commit to taking action that meets this need," said Bill Gates.
