Superpowers China, the US and Russia snub Boris Johnson’s global Covid vaccine summit

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Three of the world’s leading superpowers chose not to dial in to pledge to work together to help develop testing, vaccines and treatments for the virus.

Boris Johnson joined other world leaders for a vaccine summit today

The UK co-hosted today’s virtual summit with Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the European Commission.

Britain is already the largest donor to the worldwide search for a vaccine – pumping in £388 million so far – and the PM used his address today to urge countries to cough up.

He also stressed his own life had been on the line in his personal fight with coronavirus, and paid tribute again to the healthcare workers who had saved his life.

Speaking earlier he said: “We have formed a human shield around our health systems, enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives – including my own.

“But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone.

“The more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed.”

The PM insisted the “race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes”.

The UK is hosting a Global Vaccine Summit on June 4 to spearhead research and encourage countries to work together to find a cure.

Two universities – Oxford and Imperial – are both already testing their vaccines on humans, in a desperate attempt to help save millions of lives worldwide.

A No10 spokesperson said today of the decision for some countries not to attend: “The UK continues to work closely with all our international partners including the US and China to stop the spread of the virus.

“It’s a truly global effort and no one will be able to do this alone.

“We are encouraging all to join forces to tackle the pandemic.
“Today’s summit is only the start of the pledging process where states can pledge funds to develop vaccines, treatments and tests.”

British scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine have said they will know by early summer if it works.

Now, the team has struck a deal with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for a huge roll-out of the vaccine at cost price.

The company has pledged to produce 100million doses this year if the trials prove positive.

And it has promised to put the UK at the front of the queue for early access to millions of jabs.

Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said several hundred volunteers had already been given the experimental injection.

He said the team should get a “signal about whether it’s working by the middle of June”.

A successful vaccine is crucial to ending restrictions and life returning to normal.

Lead researcher on the Oxford project Professor Sarah Gilbert has previously said she is 80 per cent confident it will succeed.

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