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<\/div>The United States has ditched a global initiative led by the World Health Organization to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine and to openly share information on possible treatments and technologies, as The Guardian<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p> “There will be no U.S. official participation,” a spokesman for the US mission in Geneva told Reuters<\/em><\/a>.<\/p> WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted the importance of cooperation after the US made the decision not to join.<\/p> “We are facing a common threat that we can only defeat with a common approach,” he said. “The world needs these tools and needs them fast.”<\/p> A number of world leaders and luminaries — including German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron, and philanthropist Bill Gates — decided to make a pledge via a virtual conference call, agreeing to share research without hesitation.<\/p> The sharing of scientific knowledge is more important than ever as the number of global cases and deaths continues to rise. Scientists are searching for possible treatments at a record pace.<\/p> A vaccine could also be key to eventually allowing societies to return to normal — and stop global economies from hemorrhaging.<\/p> The news comes after president Donald Trump decided to completely pull WHO funding last week, an action widely criticized by experts. Bill Gates called the move<\/a> “as dangerous as it sounds,” arguing that “the world needs the WHO now more than ever.”<\/p> The US response to the crisis has been marred by dangerous comments<\/a> made by Trump, plans to reopen entire states<\/a> as early as this week despite numerous warning calls from experts, and a failure<\/a> to make sufficient numbers of COVID-19 tests available to all of its citizens.<\/p> Macron criticized the US’ decision to withdraw from the plans.<\/p> “We will continue now to mobilize all G7 and G20 countries so they get behind this initiative,” Macron said during the meeting. “And I hope we will be able to reconcile around this joint initiative both China and the US, because this is about saying the fight against Covid-19 is a common human good and there should be no division in order to win this battle.”<\/p> Some of the pledges the world leaders made during the call included providing access to new research regarding treatments and vaccines globally and to commit to collective decision making.<\/p> The post US Ditches Global Team Helping Develop COVID Vaccine<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> View post: The United States has ditched a global initiative led by the World Health Organization to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine and to openly share information on possible treatments and technologies, as The Guardian reports . \u201cThere will be no U.S Continue reading
US Ditches Global Team Helping Develop COVID Vaccine<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"