 Good morning, and welcome to this session dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic. Special thanks to Thierry for putting this session into the program and also for planning for a special WPC Health last December in Geneva. COVID-19 has appended our societies, it has put the world in great danger, it has exposed deep inequalities. In less than two years, more than 230 million cases have been reported and over five million people have died. At the highest point in 2020, half of the world has been forced into confinement and 90 percent of children of school age couldn't attend schools. An estimated 10 trillion dollars output is expected to be lost by the end of the year. So clearly, our economies and the very structure of our societies have been shaken and multilateralism certainly put at test. So this is why I look forward very much to this session, welcoming five distinguished panelists and colleagues, Professor Christian Brechaud, virologist, former Director-General of the National Institutes of Health in Paris and of the Institut Pasteur and Chair of the International Virus Network, Jean Cramarts, who is the Head of Healthcare Activities at the AXA Group, Professor Dr. Juliette Toakley, Chair of United Way and CEO of Akra Child Akra in Ghana, Professor Robert Seagal, CEO of the American Hospital in Paris and Professor Haruka Sakamoto joining us by video from Japan from the Department of Health Policy and Management of Keio University in Japan. So as we begin this discussion, let me make four points. The first is that the pandemic is not yet over. As we speak, over 400,000 new cases and 10,000 deaths are reported globally every day. Current hotspots are the USA, Brazil, India, followed by the UK, Turkey, Philippines and Russia. National responses across the world stem from the complete lifting of restrictions in Denmark to new statewide lockdowns in Australia and a growing political and public health crisis in the US. And where the number of infections increases, we see again unsustainable pressure on the healthcare system and on healthcare workers. So the bottom line here is that the pandemic remains a global emergency and the future remains uncertain. My second point is that the world was not prepared. Although public health officials, experts, previous international commissions, review committees had warned of the potential of a new pandemic and urged for robust preparations since the first outbreak of SARS, COVID-19 took the world, large parts of the world, basically by surprise. National pandemic preparedness has been vastly underfunded despite the clear evidence that the cost is a fraction of the cost of responses and losses incurred when a pandemic actually occurs. Too many governments lacked solid preparedness plans, core public health capacities, organized multi-sectoral coordination and clear commitment from leadership. And this is not a matter of wealth. I believe that COVID-19 has shaken some of our standard assumptions that the country's wealth will secure its health. Actually, leadership and competence may have counted more than cash when it comes to responding to COVID-19. Careful scrutiny of the evidence and analysis by the independent panel for pandemic preparedness and response, the so-called IPPPR, on which I have been privileged to serve, found multiple failures and gaps at every step of the response in national and international responses. The declaration of FAKE, the public health emergency of international concern, that is the highest risk in our legally binding international system of health regulations did not lead to a rapid response and certainly did not lead to a coordinated response. And it wasn't until the number of COVID-19 cases increased steadily and have spread internationally that action was taken. So in summary here, the net result of delay, hesitation, denial has been that an outbreak has spread into an epidemic and an epidemic has spread to a pandemic dimension. My third point is that we must work together to end this pandemic urgently. And of course, from a public health perspective, ensuring that all countries get rapid access to vaccines is essential to getting the pandemic under control. But as we heard already many times in this meeting, the delivery of vaccines under the current system remains painfully slow. Global solidarity is far away from where we would like it to be. And to paraphrase some of what was said yesterday, it looks like we're not learning of being an interdependent world. And finally, my fourth point is that as we work together to end this pandemic, we must urgently work to avert the next. Our panel's recommendation follow from the diagnosis we have made of what went wrong at each step of the pandemic in preparedness, surveillance, alert, early response, and of course, from our view of the leadership required to transform the system. And our panel came with at least the four following recommendations. One is the establishment of a new financing mechanism, a new financing facility, both for investing in preparedness and to be able to inject funds immediately at the onset of a pandemic potential. And that recommendation is very similar to that of the high-level finance group of the G20, of which Jean-Claude Trichet-Homaisy in the audience was part. Second, a standing pre-negotiated multi-regional platform to produce vaccines, diagnostics, and essential supplies to secure their rapid and equitable delivery as essential global common goods. Third, a strengthened and empowered World Health Organization. And four, the establishment of what we called a Global Health Threats Council at the level of heads of states and government to ensure the ongoing global political commitment to an accountability for preparedness and response between and during emergencies. So to elevate somehow pandemic threats to the level of nuclear terrorism, climate, or other threats and challenges to the economic stability and peace. So these are the key issues around governance and the system that are currently being debated as we prepare for the G20 in October, as we prepare for the special session of the World Health Assembly in November. They're discussed in the UN in New York and they're discussed here at WBC.