News & Events
News & Events
Dr. Youngmee Jee shared insights for global pandemic preparedness in a roundtable discussion organized by the Paris Peace Forum.
2021-05-11
Dr. Youngmee Jee shared insights for global pandemic preparedness in a roundtable discussion organized by the Paris Peace Forum.
The IPK CEO, Dr. Youngmee Jee, participated in the ‘Roundtable on pandemic preparedness' organized by the Paris Peace Forum on May 6. Aimed at assembling the main policy aspects of the propositions of various organizations on pandemic preparedness, the discussion was focused on the following three aspects: allowing diverse stakeholders to share their plans and seek convergences on boosting manufacturing capacity for immediate and long-term responses; mobilizing long-term resources for financing robust pandemic preparedness; strengthening the international framework to allow better cooperation and action in the wake of new pandemics.
.png)
Dr. Jee was invited as a renowned expert standing at the frontline fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic along with the representatives of public health and international organizations, such as WHO, COVAX, Global Health, CEPI, MSF, Wellcome Trust, as well as with the policymakers of Malaysia, India, the US, the UK, France, G7, G20, and EU Commission.Agreed that the world needs to be better prepared for a future pandemic, participants shared their experiences and strategies from multidimensional perspectives based on lessons learned from the current pandemic. In particular, while the rapid development of vaccines was encouraging, the challenge of ensuring equitable access to vaccines remains to be addressed through active global cooperation. In this regard, participants welcomed the US position to support waving intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccines, which will be helpful to ramp up vaccine productions in developing countries.
Dr. Jee shared insights for reinforcing long-term vaccine manufacturing capacity, saying, “We need to scale up local production capacity of all continents including Africa. Among the 41 members of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN), unfortunately, just one manufacturer is located in Africa. By further investing in and developing these infrastructures, we will be able to fully utilize them to maximize the global production for current and future pandemics.”
The point of view shared through the Roundtable will be proposed for the discussion of policymakers on the Paris Peace Forum Spring Meeting on 17 May and will be followed closely by the Global Health Summit on 21 May and the World Health Assembly on 24 May.