-730f7b3d-9a95-4868-a3f0-962567ffeb32.jpeg)
“We may never end the virus” because such pandemic viruses “end up becoming part of the ecosystem,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequality hosted by the World Economic Forum.
But “we have a chance of ending the public health emergency this year if we do the things we’ve been talking about,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The World Health Organization has criticized the imbalance in Covid-19 vaccines between rich and poor countries, calling it a catastrophic moral failure. Less than 10 percent of people in low-income countries have received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ryan told the virtual gathering of world leaders and businessmen that if vaccines and other tools are not shared fairly, the tragedy of the virus, which has so far killed more than 5.5 million people worldwide, will continue.
“What we need to do is get to lower levels of disease with maximum vaccination of our population, so no one should die,” Ryan said. The issue is death. It is recovery. It is the disruption of our social, economic and political systems that has caused the tragedy – not the virus. “
Ryan has also waded in the growing debate over whether COVID-19 should be considered endemic, a designation some countries like Spain have called for to better help coexist with the virus, or still a pandemic — one that includes the extensive measures taken by many countries to combat the virus. diffuse.
“Endemic malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people; endemic HIV violence is endemic in our inner cities. Endemic in and of themselves does not mean good. Endemic only means that they are here forever,” he said.
Public health officials have warned that COVID-19 is highly unlikely to be eradicated and said it will continue to kill people, albeit at much lower levels, even after it becomes epidemic.
Committee fellow Gabriella Bucher, executive director of anti-poverty organization Oxfam International, noted the “urgent need” for a fairer distribution of vaccines and the need for large-scale production. She said the resources needed to fight the pandemic “are being hoarded by a few companies and a few shareholders.”
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, denounced the “complete breakdown of global cooperation and solidarity” over the past two years, saying it was “totally unacceptable” so few people have been vaccinated in Africa. His agency says only 10% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people have been fully vaccinated.
He also sought to disprove the belief held by some that vaccine hesitancy is widespread in Africa, citing studies saying that 80% of Africans would have been willing to get vaccinated if vaccines were available.
The comments came on the second day of an online alternative to the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum, which was postponed due to health-epidemic concerns.
In their speeches at the event, world leaders discussed approaches to the pandemic such as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He said his country, which has quickly launched a massive vaccination campaign, has a strategy to be “at the forefront of medicines and vaccines” against COVID-19.
Israel’s Ministry of Health says 62% of people there have been fully vaccinated, including booster shots.
Citing advanced research in Israel, Bennett said, “We want to be the first in the world to know how vaccines and new variants respond to each other.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country enjoys high levels of vaccination because society protects the elderly and the weak. He plans to maintain strict border controls until the end of February.
He said he was trying to balance restrictions while keeping the economy open, but that a “zero COVID policy against an omicron variant is neither feasible nor appropriate.”
In a separate press briefing Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the omicron variant “continues to sweep the world,” adding that 18 million new cases of COVID-19 were reported last week.
MI