'Blood on your hands' if world steps back on tackling Covid-19 now — WHO official
23 September 2022
23 September 2022
BY JENNIFER RIGBY
In an interview, WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward warned that richer nations must not step back from tackling Covid-19 as a global problem now, ahead of future potential waves of infection.
In an interview, WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward warned that richer nations must not step back from tackling Covid-19 as a global problem now, ahead of future potential waves of infection.
Image: 123RF/Sasirin Pamai
If rich nations think the pandemic is over, they should help lower-income countries reach that point too, a senior World Health Organisation official told Reuters.
In an interview, WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward warned that richer nations must not step back from tackling Covid-19 as a global problem now, ahead of future potential waves of infection.
In the last few weeks, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the end of the pandemic was in sight, and US President Joe Biden said the pandemic was over.
“When I hear them say, 'Well, we're so comfortable here,' it's like, 'Great, now you can really help us get the rest of the world done',” said Aylward.
Aylward said that the group he co-ordinates, which focuses on equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests worldwide, is not yet ready to move out of the emergency phase of tackling the pandemic and that countries need to be ready and have treatments in place for any further waves of infection.
“If you go to sleep right now and this wave hits us in three months... God — blood on your hands,” he said.
He also stressed that Biden had a point domestically as the US has good access to all Covid-19 tools. It has also not cut its global commitment to fighting Covid-19, he added.
Aylward co-ordinates the ACT-Accelerator, a partnership between WHO and other global health bodies to help poorer countries access Covid-19 tools. The effort, which includes the vaccine-focused Covax, has reached billions of people worldwide but has faced criticism for not acting quickly enough. There had been some speculation that the effort may wind up this autumn, but Aylward said it was simply changing its focus as the pandemic changes.
Over the next six months, the partnership will aim particularly at delivering vaccines to the roughly one quarter of the world's healthcare workers and elderly who have still not had a shot, as well as on improving access to test-and-treat, particularly with Pfizer's Paxlovid, he said.
It will also look to the future as Covid-19 is “here to stay”, and unless systems are put in place, support will collapse once other industrialised nations also think the pandemic is over, said Aylward.
The initiative already has an $11 billion gap in its budget, with most of its available $5.7 billion in funding pledged towards vaccines rather than tests or treatments.
Reuters
If rich nations think the pandemic is over, they should help lower-income countries reach that point too, a senior World Health Organisation official told Reuters.
In an interview, WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward warned that richer nations must not step back from tackling Covid-19 as a global problem now, ahead of future potential waves of infection.
In the last few weeks, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the end of the pandemic was in sight, and US President Joe Biden said the pandemic was over.
“When I hear them say, 'Well, we're so comfortable here,' it's like, 'Great, now you can really help us get the rest of the world done',” said Aylward.
Aylward said that the group he co-ordinates, which focuses on equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests worldwide, is not yet ready to move out of the emergency phase of tackling the pandemic and that countries need to be ready and have treatments in place for any further waves of infection.
“If you go to sleep right now and this wave hits us in three months... God — blood on your hands,” he said.
He also stressed that Biden had a point domestically as the US has good access to all Covid-19 tools. It has also not cut its global commitment to fighting Covid-19, he added.
Aylward co-ordinates the ACT-Accelerator, a partnership between WHO and other global health bodies to help poorer countries access Covid-19 tools. The effort, which includes the vaccine-focused Covax, has reached billions of people worldwide but has faced criticism for not acting quickly enough. There had been some speculation that the effort may wind up this autumn, but Aylward said it was simply changing its focus as the pandemic changes.
Over the next six months, the partnership will aim particularly at delivering vaccines to the roughly one quarter of the world's healthcare workers and elderly who have still not had a shot, as well as on improving access to test-and-treat, particularly with Pfizer's Paxlovid, he said.
It will also look to the future as Covid-19 is “here to stay”, and unless systems are put in place, support will collapse once other industrialised nations also think the pandemic is over, said Aylward.
The initiative already has an $11 billion gap in its budget, with most of its available $5.7 billion in funding pledged towards vaccines rather than tests or treatments.
Reuters
The percentage has been on the decline for about two months, but COVID-19 transmission levels remain high across most of the country.
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
Sept. 23, 2022,
Pictured is the entrance to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention as seen on April 19, 2022, in Atlanta, GA.
RON HARRIS/AP PHOTO
More than 32% of Americans should be wearing masks while indoors in public spaces or considering the measure based on their risk for severe COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That percentage is down considerably from roughly two months ago, when 87% of Americans lived in counties considered a high or medium COVID-19 community level, according to CDC data.
According to the agency, people living in those areas should consider mitigation measures to protect themselves and others, like masking. The percentage has been on the decline for weeks as coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalization fall.
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have been declining since its most recent peak in July at 130,000 new infections each day on average. Now the U.S. is averaging fewer than 55,000 new cases each day, according to CDC data. COVID-19 transmission levels, however, remain high across the majority of the country.
Deaths have fallen slightly but remain elevated at nearly 350 per day. That’s down from 500 a day in August.
But it still equates to nearly 2,500 deaths per week – a number that experts agree is too high.
In fact, the number of COVID-19 deaths still occurring was a sticking point for many who criticized President Joe Biden’s remarks that the “pandemic is over.”
Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said this week that the number of deaths is “not an acceptable number as far as I'm concerned, we've gotta get it down much, much lower.”
But Biden administration officials sidestepped questions about whether Biden’s statement was incorrect, instead noting that the U.S. is in a different phase.
"I think if we look at the big picture, things are very different," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said when asked about Biden’s comments. "We're in a different place. Schools are open and businesses are open. We have a lot of population immunity out there right now."
The World Health Organization, on the other hand, did not mince words.
“At our media briefings over the past two weeks, I have said that the pandemic is not over, but the end is in sight,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday.
More than 32% of Americans should be wearing masks while indoors in public spaces or considering the measure based on their risk for severe COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That percentage is down considerably from roughly two months ago, when 87% of Americans lived in counties considered a high or medium COVID-19 community level, according to CDC data.
According to the agency, people living in those areas should consider mitigation measures to protect themselves and others, like masking. The percentage has been on the decline for weeks as coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalization fall.
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. have been declining since its most recent peak in July at 130,000 new infections each day on average. Now the U.S. is averaging fewer than 55,000 new cases each day, according to CDC data. COVID-19 transmission levels, however, remain high across the majority of the country.
Deaths have fallen slightly but remain elevated at nearly 350 per day. That’s down from 500 a day in August.
But it still equates to nearly 2,500 deaths per week – a number that experts agree is too high.
In fact, the number of COVID-19 deaths still occurring was a sticking point for many who criticized President Joe Biden’s remarks that the “pandemic is over.”
Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said this week that the number of deaths is “not an acceptable number as far as I'm concerned, we've gotta get it down much, much lower.”
But Biden administration officials sidestepped questions about whether Biden’s statement was incorrect, instead noting that the U.S. is in a different phase.
"I think if we look at the big picture, things are very different," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said when asked about Biden’s comments. "We're in a different place. Schools are open and businesses are open. We have a lot of population immunity out there right now."
The World Health Organization, on the other hand, did not mince words.
“At our media briefings over the past two weeks, I have said that the pandemic is not over, but the end is in sight,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday.
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