Giving Compass' Take:

• James Hitching-Hales, at Global Citizen, summarizes Bill Gates' recent article urging world leaders to invest heavily in containing the worldwide Coronavirus outbreak.

• Why is it important to jump on the Coronavirus before it gets out of hand? What are you doing to support efforts to contain?

• Learn about successful scientific research on the virus.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates just penned an article in the New England Journal of Medicine with a shopping list of urgent actions that world leaders must immediately take in response to the global coronavirus outbreak.

Here are a few of the key points.

1. Rich countries must support poorer countries.

It comes down to health systems: if the infrastructure is already stretched, Gates wrote, then it will likely be overwhelmed easily by any outbreak. He argues that rich countries should support countries in Africa and south Asia right away to slow the global circulation of the virus.

2. Vaccine trials must be accelerated.

Within two weeks of the first outbreak in China and before it had even been named, scientists had sequenced the genome. There’s now eight vaccines in development with trials set for as early as June. But Gates has insisted that the scientific community needs to go even faster.

3. Healthcare systems must be strengthened.

Big picture, that means supporting low-income countries to build robust health systems capable of defending people against outbreaks.

4. International diplomacy is crucial.

Gates argues that the best way to achieve a consensus is by using pre-existing global forums like the World Health Organization R&D Blueprint — essentially, so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet from the start of the research process to delivery of the vaccines.

5. Funding is needed immediately.

Billions of dollars are required urgently to accelerate vaccine development and rollout. That must come from governments first to encourage the private sector to invest too, Gates said. But it’s also vital that such funding eventually targets the hardest to reach places to get to the most vulnerable people.

Read the full article about Bill Gates' urgent call to action in Coronavirus prevention by James Hitchings-Hales at Global Citizen.