Thread by @JeremyFarrar

A chilling headline but realistic and honest assessment from @WHO. The only way to change this is to combine all the tools - Public Health, Diagnostics, Treatment, O2, PPE & Vaccines. But will only work if these tools are equitably available everywhere. theguardian.com/world/2021/apr…

Very small group countries can make this happen globally. Pandemic will continue if those countries who can do not share all tools. New variants will arise-it is enlightened self-interest,needs political leadership, an economic imperative as well as scientific, public health wise

History will not be kind on those who chose not to share, who created a world of have & have nots, of growing inequality - and a protracted pandemic in which new variants arise and spread. We face a choice. What sort of world do we want?

It will take more than money, unless a very small group of countries make available contracted vaccine doses, then money alone cannot access them. UK could, if it chose to, with majority adult population with some immunity, give a timetable to sharing doses it has under contract

In doing so it would stake a claim for a degree of global leadership. Without that in the ‘post-COVID’ world many will ask where were countries with access to COVID tools when many needed them.

Others may exploit that & any future ability to build a global coalition to address future pandemics,climate change, #AMR, or other global challenges 21stC will be severely hampered. This is an issue of statecraft, of leadership & of a diplomatic vision of how the world could be