国务卿安东尼·布林肯在线上COVID-19部长级会议上的讲话
美国国务院
发言人办公室
华盛顿哥伦比亚特区
2021年11月10日
布林肯国务卿：各位早上好，下午好，晚上好。非常感谢你们从全世界各时区参加我们的会议。极为感谢各位今天共同出席。
我们很多国家都于九月参加了拜登总统（President Biden）主持的全球COVID-19 峰会（Global COVID-19 Summit），我们在峰会上制定了到明年秋季联合国大会（UN General Assembly）召开时终止这场疫情的雄心勃勃的目标。我希望我们在今天以及在今后的日子里展开的工作将帮助我们向实现这一目标迈进。自COVID-19疫情在将近两年前爆发以来，这是我们各位外交部长首次为讨论如何终止这场疫情而专门召开会议。
这场疫情使我们懂得预防及应对全球健康紧急状况不仅仅是卫生部长或全球卫生专家的职责，因为这场疫情大流行不仅仅是健康危机，也是安全危机、经济危机和人道主义危机。正因为如此，我们需要外交部长们也积极发挥领导作用，而且我希望这将是我们定期讨论全球健康安全的多次会议中的第一次。我们还需要发展事务部长们也发挥领导作用，美国国际发展署（USAID）署长鲍尔（Power）将在今年晚些时候召集她的各国同事讨论如何共同努力以帮助终止这场疫情。
今天，我希望着重讨论的，当然是目前的紧急状况，特别是加速在全世界公平分发疫苗的需求。有关的具体情况是，在北美洲，在欧洲，超过一半的人口已全剂量接种疫苗。在非洲，只有不到10%的人口已经这样做。我们必须缩小这一差距。我们支持世界卫生组织（WHO）到明年9月为全世界至少70%的人口接种疫苗的目标，让每个国家和每种收入类别的人都获得优质、安全、有效的疫苗。
为此，我们都必须增强努力，以提高产量、增加疫苗捐助以及实现我们对COVID-19新冠疫苗全球获取机制（COVAX）做出的承诺，并帮助应对最后一英里的挑战——例如，设法为安全地储存及发送千百万剂疫苗做好物流安排并在医卫工作者不堪重负的时候支持他们。而且我们必须完全致力于透明度和问责制，这对于衡量我们的进展以及达到我们的目标至关重要。
我们今天还将谈到未来，因为我们各位外交部长能发挥关键作用，在这场疫情之后为更强大的健康保障奠定基础。我们处于独特的地位，能填补全球治理中的空白，使我们各国能以我们应对国家安全危机时所展现的同样的紧迫感来应对健康危机，加强区域性协作以改善准备工作和应对措施，并增强像世卫组织这样的关键性机构，使它现代化并确保它拥有更有效力地应对未来的种种疫情所需的资源。
我们还必须探讨如何以可持续地方式为全世界的公共卫生系统提供融资，以使各个国家和地区都能更好地做好准备，防止、发现并应对今后的紧急状况。我们陷于一种循环：当危机来袭时花费大量资金，然后在危机结束后听任这些资金枯竭，这意味着我们不能制止下一场危机发生，或总是被动地做出反应。
作为外交领导人，我们必须帮助建立并保持打破这种循环的政治意愿。我高兴地宣布最近的几项帮助我们实现目标的步骤。首先，国际货币基金组织（IMF）、世卫组织、世贸组织（WTO）、世界银行（World Bank）以及获取COVID-19工具加速计划（ACT Accelerator）创建了一个全面的COVID数据追踪工具。全世界有关COVID的最新信息首次汇集在一处，从疫苗接种率和重症监护室收治人数直到承诺提供及已经提供的疫苗数量。这个追踪工具将于今天启动。公众可以通过COVID19globaltracker.org网站使用它。它的规模将随着更多的数据得到添加而增大。
而且它将帮助提供终止这场疫情的两个关键要素：透明度，因为我们需要有一个集中化的数据来源以便走在COVID的前面，还有问责制，因为我们都必须履行我们的承诺。其次，我们知道仅仅将疫苗发送到一个国家还不够。这个国家随后必须将这些疫苗为人们打在手臂上接种。我们正在看到这可能有多么复杂。一个名为“全球COVID 服务队”（Global COVID Corps）的新的公私伙伴关系将能提供帮助。通过这项计划，主要的私营部门企业将无偿地分享他们支持疫苗接种行动的专长和能力，承担管理供应链以及帮助优化疫苗接种场所等事务，以便尽可能迅速、安全地进行接种。私营部门具备能运用于这场斗争中的独特的技能和资源。让我们最充分地加以利用。
最后，我们必须确保政府的疫苗接种行动所无法达及的人口不会被排斥在我们的努力之外。他们也需要得到保护。我高兴地宣布，美国已帮助安排在强生公司（J&J）和COVID-19新冠疫苗全球获取机制之间达成协议，为向生活在冲突地带及其他需要人道主义帮助的人民发送第一批强生疫苗提供便利。我们渴望让这些处境困难的人尽快获得预防COVID-19所需的保护。我们知道这场斗争的紧迫性。我们知道我们必须采取哪些措施来制止这场疫情。现在，我们必须付诸行动。
我们必须拿出魄力，因为要终止这场疫情必须这样做。我们必须坚持不懈，因为这场疫情是残酷无情的。我们必须相互协调并团结一致，因为这正是应对全球性健康紧急状况所必须的。因此，我希望我们能够最充分地利用今天以及今后的开会时间。让我们继续共同进行这项努力，为现在拯救生命，并为将来增强全球健康保障而向前迈进。
非常感谢各位今天出席我们的会议，我期待展开一次非常好的对话。
欲查看原稿内容:   https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-at-a-virtual-covid-19-ministerial/

REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON, DC
NOVEMBER 10, 2021
Secretary Antony J. Blinken Remarks at a Virtual COVID-19 Ministerial
 
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning, everyone.  Good afternoon.  Good evening.  Thank you so much for joining us from time zones around the world.  Greatly appreciate everyone coming together today.
Many of our countries participated in President Biden’s Global COVID-19 Summit back in September where we set the ambitious goal of ending the pandemic by the UN General Assembly next fall.  I’m hoping the work that we do today, and in the days to follow, will help us stay on track toward that goal.  This is the first time that we foreign ministers have gathered for the sole purpose of discussing how to end the COVID-19 pandemic since this began nearly two years ago.
This pandemic has taught us that preventing and responding to global health emergencies cannot be the responsibility only of health ministers or global health experts, because a pandemic isn’t just a health crisis.  It’s also a security crisis, an economic crisis, a humanitarian crisis.  That’s why we need foreign ministers to step up and lead as well, and I hope this is the first of many regular discussions among us about global health security.  We also need development ministers to lead, and USAID Administrator Power will convene her counterparts later this year to discuss how they can work together to help bring the pandemic to an end.
Today what I hope to focus on is, of course, the current emergency, particularly the need to accelerate the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.  To put this in context, in North America, in Europe, more than half the population is fully vaccinated.  In Africa, less than 10 percent of the population is.  We’ve got to close that gap.  We support the WHO’s goal to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the world by next September, in every country and every income category with quality, safe, and effective vaccines.
To do this, we all need to step up our efforts to boost production, to increase vaccine donations, to fulfill the pledges we’ve made to COVAX and help solve the last-mile challenges – for example, figuring out the logistics of storing and delivering millions of vaccine doses safely and supporting health care workers at a time when they’re badly overstretched.  And we have to fully commit to transparency and accountability, which are essential for measuring our progress and meeting our goals.
We’ll also talk today about the future because we foreign ministers have a critical role to play in laying the foundation for stronger health security beyond this pandemic.  We’re uniquely positioned to address gaps in global governance so our countries can respond to health crises with the same urgency and immediacy that we bring to national security crises, sharpen regional coordination to improve preparedness and response, and strengthen key institutions like the WHO to modernize it and make sure it has the resources it needs to take on future pandemics more effectively.
We also need to figure out how to sustainably finance public health systems around the world so countries and regions can be better prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to future emergencies.  We’re stuck in a cycle of spending lots of money when a crisis hits, and then letting that funding dry up after the crisis is over, which means we fail to stop the next one from happening or have to play catch up.
As diplomatic leaders, we have to help build and sustain the political will to break that cycle.  I’m pleased to announce a few recent steps that will help us reach our goals.  First, the IMF, the WHO, the WTO, the World Bank, the ACT Accelerator have created a comprehensive COVID data tracker.  For the first time, the latest information on COVID worldwide will be gathered in one place, from vaccination rates to ICU admissions to doses pledged and doses delivered.  The tracker is launching today.  It’s publicly accessible at a website, COVID19globaltracker.org.  It will grow as more data is added.
And it will help provide two critical elements for stopping the pandemic: transparency, because we need a centralized source of data to stay ahead of COVID, and accountability, because we all need to follow through on our commitments.  Second, we know it’s not enough simply to deliver vaccines to a country.  Countries then need to turn those vaccines into vaccinations, shots in arms.  And we’re seeing how complicated that can be.  A new public-private partnership called the Global COVID Corps will help.  Through this initiative, leading private sector companies will work pro bono to share their expertise and capabilities to support vaccination campaigns, taking on issues like managing supply chains and helping optimize vaccine sites to deliver shots as quickly and safely as possible.  The private sector has unique skills and resources to bring to bear in this fight.  Let’s make the most of them.
Finally, we need to ensure that people who cannot be reached by government vaccination campaigns aren’t left out of our efforts.  They need to be protected too.  I’m pleased to share that the United States has helped broker a deal between J&J and COVAX to facilitate the first delivery of J&J vaccines to people living in conflict zones and other humanitarian settings.  We’re eager for people in these difficult circumstances to get protection against COVID-19 as soon as possible.  We know the urgency of this fight.  We know what we need to do to stop the pandemic.  Now, we’ve got to do it.
We’ve got to be ambitious because ending this pandemic demands it.  We’ve got to be relentless because this pandemic is relentless.  And we have to be coordinated and united because that’s what a global health emergency like this requires.  So I hope we can make the most of our time together today and in the days ahead.  Let’s keep up this work together as we move forward to save lives now and to strengthen global health security for the future.
Thanks so much to everyone for joining us today, and I look forward to a very good conversation.