French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed support for the World Health Organization and called for equal access to any vaccine for coronavirus while speaking in a pre-recorded statement played out at the World Health Organisation’s 73rd World Health Assembly.

“If we do discover a vaccine against Covid-19, it will be a global public good, and everyone must have access to it,” Macron said. He called this a question of effectiveness as well as of principle. “Human health cannot be quarrelled over, cannot be appropriated, and cannot be bought and sold,” he continued.

“We need a strong WHO to tackle Covid-19, and the WHO is us, its member states,” Macron added.

Merkel urges unity

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the coronavirus pandemic “a global crisis” and urged international cooperation to defeat it, in a speech at the WHO’s World Health Assembly on Monday.

“We are experiencing a global crisis with hundreds of thousands of people who have been infected, and affected with social and economic consequences that show that virtually no country has been spared by this pandemic,” Merkel said.

“So no country can solve this problem alone,” she added. “We must work together.”

Merkel voiced her support for the World Health Organization, calling it “legitimate,” and said its financing needed to be “sustainable.”

“I am convinced we will be able to overcome this pandemic when we work together,” she added.