A European Union fundraising drive to support medical research into treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus met its initial goal Monday of raising $8 billion despite a lack of involvement by the United States.
Even with the initial fundraising goal met, U.S. absence from the EU-led effort, which will provide monetary support to the World Health Organization and other multilateral global public health efforts, has many experts and lawmakers worried about U.S. participation in coordinating research and developing a vaccine.
The European Commission, the leadership body of the EU, on Monday called the $8 billion raised through donations from wealthy countries including Norway, Japan, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia a “solid starting point,” for the pledging marathon to defeat the coronavirus. It was not immediately clear how much of the raised funds represented new monies or commitments made earlier in the year.
“The truth is, none of us can succeed alone,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, newly recovered from his own serious bout of COVID-19, said in his virtual remarks. “To win this battle, we must work together to build an impregnable shield around all our people and that can only be achieved by developing and mass producing a vaccine.
The more we pull together and share our expertise, the faster our scientists will succeed.”
Notably absent from the virtual fundraising event featuring the heads of states and ministers of dozens of countries was anyone representing Russia, India or the United States. China was represented by its ambassador to the European Union, Zhang Ming.