Covid-19 health emergency could be over this year, WHO says

The worst of the coronavirus pandemic deaths hospitalisations and lockdowns could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly the head of emergencies at the World Health Organisation said Tuesday Dr Michael Ryan speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequity hosted by the World Economic Forum said we may never end the virus because such pandemic viruses end up becoming part of the ecosystemBut we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that weve been talking about he said WHO has slammed the imbalance in Covid19 vaccinations between rich and poor countries as a catastrophic moral failure Fewer than 1037 of people in lowerincome countries have received even one dose of a Covid19 vaccineRyan told the virtual gathering of world and business leaders that if vaccines and other tools arent shared fairly the tragedy of the virus which has so far killed more than 55 million people worldwide would continue What we need to do is get to low levels of disease incidence with maximum vaccination of our populations so nobody has to die Ryan said The issue is Its the death Its the hospitalizations Its the disruption of our social economic political systems thats caused the tragedy not the virusRyan also waded into the growing debate about whether Covid19 should be considered endemic a label some countries like Spain have called for to better help live with the virus or still a pandemic involving intensified measures that many countries have taken to fight the spreadEndemic malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people endemic HIV endemic violence in our inner cities Endemic in itself does not mean good Endemic just means its here forever he said Public health officials have warned it is highly unlikely Covid19 will be eliminated and say it will continue to kill people though at much lower levels even after it becomes endemicFellow panelist Gabriela Bucher executive director of the antipoverty organization Oxfam International cited the enormous urgency of fairer distribution of vaccines and the need for largescale production She said resources to fight the pandemic were being hoarded by a few companies and a few shareholdersJohn Nkengasong director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decried the total collapse of global cooperation and solidarity over the last two years saying it was totally unacceptable how few people in Africa have gotten vaccine shots His agency says only 1037 of Africas 12 billion people are fully vaccinatedHe also sought to douse the belief among some that vaccine hesitancy is widespread in Africa citing studies that say 8037 of Africans were ready to get shots if the vaccines were available The comments came on the second day of the online alternative to the annual World Economic Forum gathering which was postponed over pandemic health concernsIn speeches at the event world leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett discussed approaches to the pandemic He said his country which quickly rolled out a widespread vaccination campaign has a strategy of being at the forefront of the medicines and the vaccines against Covid19 Israels Health Ministry says 6237 of people there are fully vaccinated including with booster shotsCiting advanced research in Israel Bennett said We want to be first in the world to know how vaccines and the new variants respond to one another Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country had high levels of vaccination because society values protecting the elderly and the vulnerable He plans to keep stringent border controls in place until the end of FebruaryHe said he was trying to balance restrictions with keeping the economy open but that a zero Covid policy against the omicron variant is not possible nor appropriate In a separate press briefing Tuesday WHO directorgeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the omicron variant continues to sweep the world adding there were 18 million new Covid19 cases reported last weekThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever