Global Health Summit: Von der Leyen, “turn pandemic experience into a lesson for the future”. Draghi, “vaccinate the world quickly”

Bringing the pandemic under control, ensuring the vaccine is available everywhere, and preparing for future crises: these are the priorities that the Global Health Summit is called to face in the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who opened the pre-summit at Villa Pamphili in Rome. The underlying logic of the work is that: “experience should be turned into a lesson for the future”. Among the lessons learned, according to Von der Leyen, is that “we need one another”; and then the enormous contribution of the scientific community that is reason for hope today, but receives little recognition. Among those deserving special thanks are the global partners for their support; the civil society for their contribution; and healthcare professionals for working in impossible conditions and doing their best to relieve suffering.

Finally, two announcements: the establishment of a new Global Health Policy Forum; and the distribution by the EU of 100 million doses to low- and middle-income countries. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi stressed “the importance of international cooperation”, suggesting the need for any future process to be “inclusive”, that is, to engage civil society and the scientific, philanthropic and economic communities in order to be effective. The priority today, according to Mario Draghi, is “to vaccinate the world quickly”.
Sarah Numico