China and U.S. academics call for joint efforts to end COVID-19

Chinese and U.S. healthcare experts called for collaboration between the two countries in fight against the COVID-19. /CFP

Chinese and U.S. healthcare experts called for collaboration between the world's two biggest economies in fighting against the COVID-19 and building up a global public health system to prevent future pandemics.

"The U.S. and China have difficulties in collaboration in many areas," Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at

an online forum

held by Tsinghua University and the Brookings Institute on Monday.

"We should find an easy way to collaborate, such as in public health and vaccine," Gao said.

He pointed out one of the major factors for China's sharp decline in COVID-19 infections is that the key groups of people in the country were vaccinated. He estimated that people's lives could return to "approximate normal in the summer next year."

"We need to work together in a global fashion," said Ian Lipkin, director of Center for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

"A global food and drug organization" is needed for sharing data, and the countries should keep their efforts on basic scientific research, he said.