Editor's note: John Gong is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and a research fellow at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at UIBE. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

The second global COVID-19 summit, co-hosted by the United States as the first COVID-19 Summit Chair, took place on May 12 in Washington. Many world leaders, including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attended the summit via video link.

The conference was much called for as the Omicron and other COVID-19 variants are still wreaking havoc in many parts of the world, even though their deadliness has waned somewhat. The summit took place also at a time when the U.S. and the EU are about to reach tragic milestones of recording 1 million and 2 million deaths, respectively, as a result of the COVID-19 scourge.

U.S. President Joe Biden set the tone at the summit by saying, "We have to prevent COVID-19 complacency." Indeed, complacency appears to be the predominant political mood in many countries that have relaxed or removed many of the restrictive measures introduced at the peak of COVID-19. In fact, cases are increasing in more than 70 countries, according to the WHO.

"The pandemic is not over anywhere until it's over everywhere," declared Ghebreyesus in his speech at the summit.

Therefore, the issues in the global fight against COVID-19 remain more or less the same after more than two years – a globally coordinated effort to vaccinate as many people as possible. At this point, the most effective means of saving lives is still vaccination.

In China, the statistics in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Shanghai Municipality and Jilin Province consistently show that vaccines are effective in reducing symptomatic cases, hospitalization and death. Different vaccines have varying degrees of effectiveness in terms of infection prevention, but, overall, they are all consistently effective in terms of preventing hospitalization and death. Vaccination is a global cause that calls for financial resources and access to vaccines. Rich countries, the developed world, do have an obligation to help the much poorer Global South.

The WHO says that the ACT Accelerator, which is the vaccine assistance program for poor countries, faces a $15 billion shortfall. Even though China was not present during this summit due to Washington playing the Taiwan "game," China's contribution to the global fight against COVID-19 is undeniable. 

Here is a short summary:

China has so far contributed 2.2 billion vaccines to more than 120 countries, including 600 million to Africa and 150 million to ASEAN countries. China was the first country to announce to relinquish intellectual property rights claims on its vaccines. It has already established local joint production of vaccines with 13 countries.

Aside from vaccines, the international humanitarian assistance actions from China so far include 4.6 billion PPE units, 18 billion COVID testing kits, 430 billion masks and other related medical supplies to 153 countries and 15 international organizations. China has also pledged $100 million to the WHO COVAX program and continues to be a major contributor to the WHO ACT Accelerator program.

Complacency is the last word one will see in China now, when it comes to the fight against COVID-19. Many parts of the country that are infected still remain subject to very restrictive measures as part of the "dynamic zero-COVID" policy in China. China's economy is under immense pressure as a result. But its contribution to the global cause of the COVID-19 fight is still unwavering because we understand the old adage that no one is safe until everyone is safe.

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