Photo taken on March, 25, 2020 at the United Nations headquarters in New York shows that participants attending a video teleconference, namely the launch of a 2-billion-U.S.-dollar global humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19 in some of the world's most vulnerable countries. (Xinhua/Xie E)
The British professor expects massive new steps to exchange scientific knowledge for the good of humanity, steps that should receive massive new funding from the G20.
by Xinhua writer Liang Xizhi, Larry Neild
LONDON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A global epidemic needs a global response on the political as well as the epidemiological fronts, an expert told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Anthony Glees, a professor emeritus at Britain's University of Buckingham and expert on international politics, said COVID-19 can only be managed and defeated by pooling global expertise, calling the pandemic a global war.
"It seems hard to doubt that China has done something from which the world must learn," he said, adding that the Chinese government has impressed the global community with its firm measures to contain the outbreak and expeditious hospital building. He said life in China is beginning to return to normal.
Officials and experts from kenya's Ministry of Health participate in the China-Africa Video Conference on COVID-19 in Nairobi, Kenya, March 18, 2020. (Chinese Embassy in kenya/Handout via Xinhua)
He stressed that equally impressive is the readiness of Chinese scientists and doctors to share their own clinical experience, equipment and scientific data with the World Health Organization (WHO), which has played a positive role in the outbreak, and globally.
The world needs China to extend the hand of cooperation in fighting COVID-19, he said.
The professor expects massive new steps to exchange scientific knowledge for the good of humanity, steps that should receive massive new funding from the Group of 20 (G20).
The G20 Extraodinary Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 is being held in Beijing Thursday, which begins at 8 PM Beijing time (12 PM GMT).
Glees believes that science and technology are the keys to tackling the threat of further pandemics, global warming and also with the devastating economic consequences of the COVID-19 onslaught. ■
