Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Zayna Badawi.

As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, the capacity of governments around the world to respond is being seriously tested.

My guest is the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutierrez, who has just launched a humanitarian appeal, focused mainly on helping

40 of the most vulnerable countries. He says that a global approach is the only way to fight the

virus and that without critical support, the impact of COVID-19 will be deep and particularly

severe on poorer nations. But how realistic are his

proposals and who will pay for them? Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York, welcome to

hard talk. You have described COVID-19 as a threat to humanity. What do you mean by that and how worried are you?

First of all, it's a pleasure to be with you again. Well, it is clear. I mean, if this

pandemic would be left alone, if we wouldn't be able to suppress it, it will reach millions

and millions of people. It will have

millions of victims. And it is clearly the biggest threat to humanity that we have seen in

the recent past. And that is one reason why it is so important that instead of acting separately,

each one doing what each one wants, it is essential to have effective international cooperation and coordination

to defeat this virus to win this war against COVID-19.

But when people hear the Secretary General of the United Nations

use such language as millions could die,

are you not going to scare people?

And I put to you what Professor Michael Levitt,

who is a Nobel laureate and Stanford biophysicist, who has done various projections,

and he predicts a quick coronavirus recovery. He told the LA Times this week, we are going to be

fine. What we need is to control the panic. As a matter of fact,

...