key: cord-0782317-fqd9qyeo authors: Zeng, Wu; Bouey, Jennifer; Dossani, Rafiq; Wang, Huihui; Li, Guohong title: The Belt and Road Initiative and disease control amid the COVID-19 pandemic date: 2021-03-06 journal: J Travel Med DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taab034 sha: 954d955505a03c94bac64fb8a8f1dee34b460e8e doc_id: 782317 cord_uid: fqd9qyeo The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a critical platform to fight COVID-19 through the strengthened collaboration, improved supply chain, elevated digital infrastructure, and more sustainable financing. BRI that integrate health with economic development may offer a new paradigm for building a resilient health system to address disease epidemics. through the strengthened collaboration, improved supply chain, elevated digital infrastructure, and more sustainable financing. BRI that integrate health with economic development may offer a new paradigm for building a resilient health system to address disease epidemics. Climate change, human activities, and globalization have exposed human beings to increasing threats from emerging infectious diseases and new pathogens. Since its start, the BRI has placed a particular emphasis on fostering global collaboration. To enhance the global health collaboration, the Chinese government proposed the "Health Silk Road" (HSR) initiative in 2017. A series of regional and inter-regional programs have been 3 the COVID-19 control and discuss COVID-19 clinical treatment guidelines and disease control strategies. 5 Additionally, medical teams from China were deployed to provide in-person technical support to implement COVID-19 control measures in the early stage of the pandemic. As of May 31 2020, China had sent 29 medical expert teams to 27 countries to assist the control of COVID-19 from both clinical and public health perspectives, 6 and had provided medical assistance to more than 150 countries and 10 international organizations in 2020. The assistance ranged from material support such as donation of personal protection equipment (PPE), medical team support, to knowledge exchange and training, and constituted the most intensive and largest-scale emergency humanitarian assistance mission in Chinese history since 1949. 7 Additionally, China has partnered with at least 16 countries (e.g., Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan) to test the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines produced by China, and started distributing vaccines in some low-and middle-income countries. Most of such medical diplomacy activities have been packaged under the umbrella of the HSR during the pandemic. Building a network of connectivity (e.g., roads and railways) in partner countries is one of the major investments of the BRI. In the past years, the investment in roads and railways has significantly reshaped and strengthened the inter-regional, regional and domestic supply chain in some countries. 8 Although it is still too early to thoroughly assess the BRI's impact on global health, the BRI offers a platform to cope with disease epidemics through the strengthened collaboration, improved supply chain, elevated digital infrastructure, and more sustainable financing. The pandemic has also highlighted that economic development and population health complement each other. Economic development is unattainable without healthy populations, and vice versa. Programs, such as the BRI, that integrate health with economic development may offer a new paradigm for building a strong and resilient health system to address disease epidemics and health. The authors declare no conflict of interest References: China's Silk Road and global health Bejing: China: China-Arab States Cooperation Forum Commemoration, succession & innovation -70 years of China's foreign aid and transformation to international development cooperation The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. China's international development cooperation in the new era Demystifying the Belt and Road Initiative: A clarification of its key features, objectives and impacts Sino-Europe Railway Express update