GERMAN Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Africa will have the full support of Germany and the European Union when fighting future pandemics and other diseases.
Her words came as German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech prepared to open an mRNA vaccine plant to help supply the continent when future pandemics such as COVID-19 arise.
“Diseases do not recognize national borders or continents — our solidarity must not either,” the Green Party politician said as she departed for the trip.
“The path to a fair international health architecture is not a short-distance race, but a team marathon,” said Baerbock.
“Team Europe supports the goal of Africa’s own vaccine production — from concept to needle.”
When the covid-19 pandemic spread across the globe, Baerbock said, the world realized that “no one is safe until everyone is safe.”
She said that, especially in Africa, too many people were defencelessly exposed to the virus at the beginning of the pandemic and “that we as the international community literally could not deliver.”
“Fair and rapid access to life-saving vaccines must not depend on whether a child is born in Germany or Rwanda,” Baerbock underlined.
