Former UK Prime Minister Brown Calls For Coordinated Global Response To COVID-19 Pandemic

Faizan Hashmi Published March 26, 2020 | 06:29 PM

The international community must cooperate and form a global task force in order to combat the dual epidemiological and economic risks posed by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown told The Guardian newspaper on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2020) The international community must cooperate and form a global task force in order to combat the dual epidemiological and economic risks posed by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown told The Guardian newspaper on Thursday.

"There has to be a coordinated global response," Brown said.

Brown, who led the UK through the 2008 global financial crisis, suggested forming an international task force of politicians, leading health experts and heads of international organizations that would spearhead efforts to produce a vaccine against the disease and prevent profiteering.

The former prime minister also said that the global pandemic will exert increasing economic pressure on the international community.

"This is first and foremost a medical emergency and there has to be joint action to deal with that. But the more you intervene to deal with the medical emergency, the more you put economies at risk," Brown argued.

Brown, who also took a leading role among G20 leaders during the 2008 crisis, said that countries in the developing world must be consulted during efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

"If I were doing it again, I would make the G20 a broader organization because in the current circumstances you need to listen to the countries that are most affected," he noted.

The ex-prime minister added that international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund must be given greater resources.

Brown served as UK chancellor of the exchequer under ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007, until the latter's resignation. Brown then held the position of prime minister for three years until he lost the 2010 general election to then-Conservative Party leader David Cameron.