G7 Must Get Ready for Next Biothreat by Developing Early Warning Systems, US Official Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The countries within the G7 must start preparing for the next biothreat with early warning systems, Daleep Singh, a US Deputy National Security Adviser and G7 & G20 Sherpa said during a virtual armchair conversation hosted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Economics Programme.

"We got to start preparing for the for the next biothreat and that means laying out a plan for early warning systems and then adding triggers for collective action and we have to do all of this in a coordinated multilateral way with the motto of 'no strings attached, 'no conditions'", he said.

He drew an analogy of how the world addressed the financial crisis in the past with the current actions.

"The more bold and aggressive we can be upfront, the better chance we have of containing the size and the speed of the problem we are trying to solve", he said, adding that the issue should be reviewed at the next G7 and G20 meeting.

Speaking about the current state of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he added that G7 needs to do more to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate.