Harris to inform UN physique it’s time to prep for subsequent pandemic

Vice President Kamala Harris will make the case earlier than United Nations members on Monday that now’s the time for world leaders to start placing the intense work into how they are going to reply to the subsequent world pandemic.
The digital tackle, Harris’ second to a UN physique since her inauguration, will come because the United States makes progress on vaccinating the general public and far of the world struggles to amass vaccines.
“At the same time that the world works to get through this pandemic, we also know that we must prepare for the next,” Harris will say, in keeping with excerpts of the speech obtained by The Associated Press. The speech shall be co-hosted by UN everlasting representatives of Argentina, Japan, Norway and South Africa.
The Biden administration will mark its first 100 days in workplace this week. President Joe Biden is scheduled to handle Congress on Wednesday and is for certain to spotlight the headway his administration has made in responding to the worst public well being disaster within the US in additional than a century.
Harris, in keeping with the excerpts, will broadly define how the administration thinks the US and different nations ought to think about focusing their consideration. The steps embody enhancing accessibility to well being methods, investing in science, well being staff and the well-being of girls, and surging capability for private protecting tools and vaccine and take a look at manufacturing.
Harris says a lot has been discovered during the last yr about pandemic preparedness and response however that it will be unwise to relaxation straightforward. “We have been reminded that the status quo is not nearly good enough, and that innovation is indeed the path forward,” Harris says.
Biden’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, can also be scheduled to ship remarks at Monday’s digital occasion.