Majority Believe Their Governments Should Pay More To Fight COVID-19 Overseas

• 80% of people surveyed in major donor countries believe life won’t return to normal until COVID-19 is under control everywhere.
• 60% want their governments to increase foreign aid, to fight COVID-19 in other countries.

Research from international aid agency, World Vision, shows 61% of people surveyed in six donor countries want their governments to invest more in the global battle against COVID-19. Most of those surveyed in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK, believe repeated outbreaks in other countries threatened their own nations.

Aftershocks: Deadly Waves also warns that 1.56 million people are at risk of dying in a deadlier second wave of COVID-19 if governments do not do everything they can to prepare and protect everyone globally.

“It’s clear we must increase support for countries with weaker health systems. This is going to be crucial if we are to protect everyone everywhere. Borders cannot be closed indefinitely, and the virus does not distinguish between nationality or wealth,” said Andrew Morley, World Vision International President.

If the virus continues to thrive in fragile countries, it will pose a constant health and economic threat to every country in the world, World Vision’s new report finds. It warns that just like countries devastated by illnesses like AIDS or Ebola, many poorer countries will inevitably require massive investment to address the social and economic fallout from COVID-19.

“Our Aftershocks reports have highlighted the clear and present danger posed to vulnerable people, particularly children, by COVID-19: violence, secondary health impacts, devastating loss of family income and more. And our latest research is clear; people want governments to lift their eyes above their own national interests and ensure the most vulnerable in the world are taken care of. Those in power must act and think like world leaders,” said Morley.

You can read World Vision’s Aftershocks: Deadly Waves here

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