Jack Ma, the founder of Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Group, who has been donating medical supplies to African countries to help them fight the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), stressed the need to mobilize health experts in addition to medical supplies.
“Over the past 3 months, I have spent each and every day following the pandemic. And during our donation efforts, we realized that not only medical supplies are needed, but also frontline experience to fight the virus. That is why we established the GMCC. Solidarity and collaboration are the only way we can succeed. The solution is not isolation, but instead cooperation,” Jack Ma said during a special webinar held aiming to bring together medical experts from Africa, China, and other parts of the world to discuss ways of combating Covid-19.
The webinar, entitled “Global MediXChange for Combatting COVID-19 (GMCC): The Experience of China”, was co-hosted by the Jack Ma Foundation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). By evening EAT, nearly 3,400 medical personnel had either participated in the live webcast or watched it playback.
Jack Ma recognized the outstanding efforts and dedication of the Africa CDC and all African medical experts and health workers.
The session enabled medical experts to share knowledge, experience and best practices for treating COVID-19, and also included presentations by Dr John Nkengasong, Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC); Dr Chen Wang, President, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; Dr Bin Cao, President, China-Japan Friendship Hospital; and Dr Raji Tajudeen, Head of the Division of Public Health Institutes and Research at Africa CDC.
Dr John Nkengasong, Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said: “Partnership is key to winning the war against COVID-19. In our strategy we have highlighted four things: cooperation, collaboration, coordination and communication. If we do not want Africa to be the next epicentre, we must foster multisectoral partnerships at the community level, at the national level, at the continental level, and at the global level. This important collaboration is a major milestone in achieving this.”
GMCC was launched last month by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation to facilitate open knowledge sharing and online communication to combat COVID-19. Supported by technologies and tools from Alibaba Health and Alibaba Cloud, GMCC features three main components: digital access to epidemic prevention resources, videos and webinars, and tools for online discussions. Almost 3,000 medical professionals have already joined the platform globally.
The webinar series is the latest in a series of initiatives that the Jack Ma and Alibaba Foundations have implemented to provide support in the global fight against COVID-19. Thousands of medical staff from hospitals across Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe have participated in previous live exchange sessions organized by the GMCC to better understand how to respond to this new virus.