Experts say closer US-China collaboration key to global fight COVID-19
Closer U.S.-China collaboration, a substantial part of broader global cooperation and coordination, is paramount to the fight against an unprecedented pandemic just like the ongoing COVID-19, several former U.S. diplomats and healthcare specialists have said recently.
"COVID-19 ought to be a wake-up call about the cooperation which will be needed to make certain that any future pandemic -- particularly the one which is a lot more lethal compared to the coronavirus -- can be dealt with most effectively by the international community," Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation and former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, told Xinhua via email on Wednesday.
There are now over fifty percent a million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including more than 20,000 deaths, in line with the latest figures by the World Health Organization.
Experts needed joint efforts by Washington and Beijing to tackle the severe global public health crisis, underscoring the significance of collective response by the international community.
"COVID-19 offers a unique opportunity to take an exceptionally positive step that may help restore a number of the previous stability that characterized the bilateral relationship," said Quinn, who had a 32-year career as a U.S. diplomat.
The two sides are encouraged to work together to confront the coronavirus outbreak and defeat future pandemic diseases, from wherever on the globe they could emanate, said the veteran diplomat.
"The two most crucial countries on our planet regarding scientific expertise and research capacity should be partners in ensuring human triumph over the risk of a devastating global cataclysm," he stressed.
Nicholas Platt, who served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan, Philippines, Zambia, and as a high-level diplomat in various countries including China, echoed Quinn on the urgency of U.S.-China collaboration, particularly when the world has seen a sharp surge in the amount of infections.
"We should concentrate on working together and not blaming one another for what's happened in the past," Platt, also former president of the Asia Society, a non-profit organization in New York City, told Xinhua in a phone interview on Wednesday.
"The doctors in america understand and trust doctors in China about the virus and what to do about any of it," he said. "We ought to be learning as much about the other person and exchanging as much information as we are able to."
Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the Global Health Initiative and ICAP at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said "this virus does not discriminate, and we are all vulnerable."
The seasoned expert said that by strengthening collaboration on various fronts such as scientific research, China and america can contribute to the tackling of major global public health threats.
Facing epidemics just like the coronavirus, mankind is a community that shares weal and woe, and concerted wills and actions by the global community are highly urged, said experts.
"We are all in this together ... most of us must face this challenge together," said Platt, adding that joint efforts by nations around the world can contribute to the general health of all.
"It is now time to build bridges, not walls, between peoples all over the world," said El-Sadr, adding she was "encouraged to start to see the sharing of information and scientific data across borders," which is "critical" in working towards controlling this pandemic.
Quinn urged "continued full sharing of information regarding the circumstances within each country, including about the efficacy of drugs and therapies that are being tested and utilized," so that you can contain the virus.
Because the onset of the outbreak, China has taken rigorous measures to support the epidemic, and has been sharing critical information with the world in an open, transparent and timely manner, providing as much assistance as it can for hard-hit countries and the ones with fragile public health systems.
The Group of 20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 happened on Thursday in order to coordinate global response to the fast-spreading coronavirus.
