Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
Washington, D.C.
May 12, 2022
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Prime Minister Kishida for closing us out particularly strongly with those impressive commitments. And thank you all for your insightful comments and the spirit of collaboration this group has shown today as we come together to end this global pandemic.
I’m encouraged by the leadership and the political and financial commitments we’ve seen so far this morning. With everyone’s hard work, we can continue to make ending the pandemic a top priority, even as we simultaneously deal with other crises. And if there’s one thing I’m taking away from this first session, it’s that as we tackle COVID-19 and save lives, we also have to ready ourselves for future threats.
Every single country has a role to play in this fight. We must come together to ensure testing and treatment is accessible to all, to support heroic frontline health care workers, and to strengthen our public health infrastructure. And while we’re making real progress in our efforts to vaccinate the world, we know that too many people are still out of reach – especially those living under conflict and instability. This is an issue the UN Security Council took up just last month, and I’m glad to see it’s a focus of today’s next session.
I look forward from hearing the next group of leaders on how we can all facilitate access to vaccines for the vulnerable and hardest-to-reach populations around the world.
Thank you.
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