On 27 November, Zhang Wenhong, Director of China National Medical Centre for Infectious Diseases and Director of Department of Infectious Diseases of Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, delivered his remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

The Asia Youth Leaders Forum is an important platform for cooperation and exchanges between Asian youth. Over the past year, COVID-19 has hindered close communication between us. Although the process of globalization has suffered a little setback, the goal of globalization has never been abandoned. We human beings are a community with a shared future. I think many issues need to be solved with joint efforts and unity of human beings. At present, COVID-19 is spreading all over the world. Every country has suffered losses, and lives of their people have been put at risk during the pandemic. Until today, we know that the pandemic is still spreading all over the world and has not been fundamentally contained. In this case, we hope that through our unity and technological innovation, we can realize the complementarity of global resources and reach global cooperation in anti-epidemic strategies, so as to curb the spread of COVID-19 and ultimately be free from the threats posed by COIVD-19 in the near future.

In addition to COVID-19, there are many other issues of public health. Poverty-related public health diseases are still spreading and threatening the lives of people in Asia and around the world, and the risks are still continuing and increasing.

In this case, the current Asia Youth Leaders Forum is very timely. We hope this forum will be a complete success and we can better join hands to solve global public health issues including COVID-19 through this forum in the future.