EU spearheads $8 billion virus fundraiser

BRUSSELS: World leaders, philanthropists and celebrities pledged some 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) on Monday for research into coronavirus vaccines, treatments and testing during an EU-led videoconference snubbed by the United States.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who hosted the conference, said a vaccine was the best chance of beating the COVID-19 disease, which has so far killed nearly a quarter of a million people around the world — 140,000 of them in Europe.

Major European powers, along with Japan and Canada, made the biggest pledges but the lack of US representation raised the prospect of an uncoordinated competition to develop and produce a vaccine.

The conference narrowly missed its target of 7.5 billion euros although a handful of contributors did not put a sum on their pledges. UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that much more would be needed, putting the final sum required near 38 billion euros.

“These funds are a kind of down payment for the development of new tools at the speed needed,” Guterres told the conference. “To reach everyone everywhere we likely need five times that amount.”

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the fundraising as a powerful show of “global solidarity”. The donations came from around 40 countries, the UN, research institutes and philanthropic bodies including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The initiative was undermined by the absence of the United States, with President Donald Trump at loggerheads with the WHO over its handling of the pandemic.

Trump said on Sunday the United States would have a coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year. His prediction was met with scepticism in some quarters, with Germany’s Health Minister warning it could take years for anyone to develop a vaccine.

EU officials were disappointed the US did not take part. Many leaders are concerned that Trump’s approach could lead to a counterproductive race to find a vaccine and called instead for a collaborative approach.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the world “must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people”, while his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe urged the international community to “unite to overcome the crisis”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was vital that once a vaccine has been developed, it is treated as “global public property” with access available for “the whole of the planet”.

In March, Germany was forced to insist that the rights to coronavirus vaccine research were not for sale after reports Trump wanted the US to buy exclusive access to one being developed by a German biotech firm. In recent days the Trump administration has stepped up pressure on China claiming it originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.

China implicitly hit back at the donor conference where it was represented by its ambassador to the EU. “Multilateral cooperation in fighting the virus, confidence and solidarity are much more valuable than gold,” ambassador Zhang Ming said. “Panic and blame game are not useful at all.”

Out of the 7.5 billion euros, four billion will go on vaccine development, two billion on the search for a treatment and 1.5 billion for producing tests, the EU said.