On April 24, 2020 at a virtual event co-hosted by the World Health Organization (Tedros), the President of France (Emmanuel Macron), the President of the European Commission (Ursula Von Der Leyen), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leaders of global health organisations (including Big Pharma) came together to “ensure” that “everyone everywhere” can have access to “new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19”. Especially the brand new technology COVID-19 vaccines, pushing them through an unprecedented, accelerated development and production process. [1, 2, 3]
They called on the global community and political leaders to support their “landmark collaboration” asking for financial support to accelerate their objectives and capitalize on the “opportunity”, by attending a May 4, 2020 virtual pledging initiative.
This meeting launched the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT Accelerator) which “brings together the combined power of several organizations to work with speed and scale”. The “tools” comprise vaccines, tests and treatments.