Boris Johnson: Coronavirus vaccine is not a competition between countries but most urgent endeavor

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was congratulated and thanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the Prime Minister pledged a whopping £774m to the global fight against coronavirus.

World leaders today pledged billions of euros for research to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “the race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries, but the most urgent shared endeavor of our lifetimes."

Introducing the Prime Minister, Ursula von der Leyen said he had felt "every emotion in the last month", in reference to Boris Johnson's recovery from coronavirus.

The Prime Minister claimed "no one can succeed alone" in the fight against the deadly virus. He pledged a total of £774m to support the global fight against Covid-19, including £338m aimed at the research, development and distribution of a vaccine.

In a pre-recorded message for the international pledging conference, the Prime Minister said: "In our own countries we've taken extraordinary measures asking our people to accept sweeping restrictions on their way of life.

"And by doing so we've formed a human shield around our health systems enabling our heroic health workers to save many lives, including my own.

"But the truth is that none of us can succeed alone 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."

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