The general director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Ghebreyesus has advised world leaders to avoid what he described as the “politics of populism and self-interest” if the world sees the end of the coronavirus pandemic in 2022.
Mr Ghebreyesus gave this advice at the latest WHO press conference on COVID-19 on Wednesday.
“This is the time for leaders to banish the politics of populism and self-interest, which are derailing the response to COVID-19 and threatening to undermine the response to the next inevitable disease,” he said.
Speaking about the new WHO Center for Intelligence on Pandemics and Epidemics based in Berlin, he assured that the world body will continue to support countries in building strong health systems and ensuring the distribution of health tools.
He said: “In 2022, WHO will work with our member states to build well-funded health systems, strengthen preparedness and ensure equitable distribution of health tools.
“From the new WHO Bio Hub System, which offers a reliable, secure and transparent mechanism for the 194 WHO member states to voluntarily share new biological materials to the new WHO Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Center based in Berlin, WHO will create mechanisms to enhance partnerships.
“In this sense, the development of a new binding agreement between nations on preparedness and response for pandemic prevention will be a key pillar. I hope that the negotiations move quickly and that the leaders act with ambition. “
New Years Resolution
The WHO chief also recommended everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to achieve WHO’s goals of vaccinating 70 percent of the population of all countries by mid-2022.
“While 2021 has been difficult, I ask everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to support the campaign to vaccinate 70 percent by mid-2022,” he said, adding; “We have 185 days to finish the line to achieve 70 percent by early July 2022, and the clock starts now.”
“If we push this campaign together, we will all be in a much better place by now next year,” he said.
The WHO had initially set a goal of vaccinating 10% of all countries, economies and territories by the end of September, but by that date 56 countries had not been able to do so, the vast majority of them are countries in Africa and the Middle East. .
As a result, WHO launched the Strategy to Achieve Global Vaccination Against COVID-19 by Mid-2022, which outlines a plan to achieve its goals of vaccinating 40 percent of the population of each country by the end of this year and 70 percent by mid-2022.
Variants of COVID-19
Speaking more about the existing COVID-19 variants, Ghebreyesus confirmed that the delta and omicron variants are twin threats that are pushing cases to record highs, causing spikes in hospitalizations.
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“And there is great concern that omicron, being more transmissible and circulating at the same time as delta, is causing a tsunami of cases. This will continue to put enormous pressure on exhausted healthcare workers and healthcare systems on the brink of collapse.
“The pressure on healthcare systems is not just because new COVID-19 patients require hospitalization, but also because large numbers of healthcare workers are falling ill,” said the CEO.
He noted that the unvaccinated are many times more at risk of dying from the delta or omicron variant, which is moving so fast.
On the inequity in vaccination, the director general of the WHO emphasized the need for leaders and manufacturers to work to achieve a vaccination coverage of 70%.
“By ending global vaccine inequality, I want government, industry and civil society to work with us on a campaign that aims for 70 percent vaccine coverage in all countries by early July,” he added. .