GORDON Brown has called on the US and China to "step up to the plate" and pledge to join a multi-billion pound drive to prevent a second wave of coronavirus.
The former Prime Minister said the two economic giants were facing an "appointment with destiny" as he urged them to become involved in raising an eight billion US dollar Covid-19 "fighting fund" to pay for vaccines, treatments and test kits for developing countries.
Mr Brown, who was premier between 2007 and 2010 and led the global co-ordinated response to the 2008 financial crash, insisted there was a "deadly urgency" about nations working together now to stop a second wave of the disease impacting on the world's poorest countries, and then returning to the rest of the globe.
The Scot is calling on US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to participate in an online summit on May 4.
The summit was planned after a letter was signed by 200 economists, health professionals and former presidents and prime ministers, calling for greater global co-operation.
"If we are to stop this in its tracks, our interventions will only be as effective as the weakest link in the global chain,” declared Mr Brown.
"So, if any issue is a candidate for multilateral global action, then it must be our response to this pandemic. The health of each depends on the health of all. Local solutions everywhere are only as good as the global response. To that end, we must outlaw the ugly 'vaccine nationalism' that seems to be setting in.”
The former Labour warned that restricting new vaccines to those who could afford them would condemn millions to enduring multiple waves of the illness.
"We must also crack down on medical piracy, whereby, instead of joining a co-ordinated international effort to increase their global supply, a few countries seek, by whatever means, to monopolise testing kits, ventilators, and personal protective equipment.
"Scientists and medics are collaborating across borders, pharmaceutical companies are discussing how to work together in the search for vaccine and treatments, institutional investors have held talks about industry competitors working with each other," added the ex-PM.
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