At the “Global Summit: Health & Prosperity Through Immunisation” summit, co -organized by the European Union, Gavi and the Gates Foundation, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke today, announcing that Greece would increase its contribution to global vaccination.

Starting with a personal tone, the prime minister shared with the delegates a particularly moving story from his family:

“Let me not consult the notes I had prepared because I do not want to repeat what has already been said by highly eloquent speakers who preceded it. Let me just share a deep personal story with you. My late mother was infected with polio during World War II. He received the best possible care, lived a full but very difficult life, with challenges. He was one of the lucky ones. Many other children did not have the same route. “

Referring to Bill Gates and his reference to the attempt to eliminate polio, the prime minister praised the scientific progress of the last decades and the role of Gavi:

“As I heard Mr. Gates talking about the elimination of polio, I was thinking of the enormous progress made by science for the last 50 years. I was also thinking of Gavi’s enormous contribution as a model of private and public partnership, providing vaccines to tens of millions of children, saving millions of lives. “

Mr Mitsotakis emphasized the need to continue this work, especially at a time when great donors limit their participation and the mistrust of vaccinations is increasing internationally. It also welcomed Europe’s initiative to fill in the resulting financial gaps.

He then announced that Greece is increasing its financial contribution to Gavi:

“On behalf of the Greek people I would like to announce that the initial recommendation of the Treasury was to contribute 2 million euros to Gavi’s purpose, but I decided to increase it to 5m euros.”

In closing, the Prime Minister noted:

“I was thinking that some of us came from the NATO Summit to ensure that we are here today, with you, to reaffirm our support for Gavi. I was thinking that if we could – and rightly, I can add – to spend 5% of our GDP on defense in the coming years, we can certainly afford to contribute 5 million to Gavi. “