The WHO has emphatically criticized the inequality between rich and poor countries in terms of access to vaccines, calling it a moral failure.
GENEVA, January 18 (AP/EFE) – The emergency director of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Tuesday that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic —deaths, hospitalizations, and lockdowns— might finish this year if effective measures are taken to eliminate inequality in access to vaccines.
Dr. Michael Ryan, in a panel organized by the World Forum in Davos on equality in the distribution of vaccines, declared that “we may never end the virus” because these types of pathogens “sometimes end up being part of the ecosystem”.
But “we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do what we have preached,” he added.
The WHO has emphatically criticized the inequality between rich and poor countries in terms of access to vaccines, calling it a moral failure. In poor countries, on average, less than 10 percent of the population has received just the first dose.
Ryan indicated that if vaccines and other medical equipment are not equitably distributed, the tragedy of the virus, which has already caused more than 5.5 million people worldwide, will continue.
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The screens show John Nkengasong, director for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the left, and moderator Julia Chatterley, on the right, at a panel at the World Forum in Davos, in Cologne, near Geneva, Switzerland on 18 January 2022. Photo: AP.
“What we have to do is get to low levels of incidence with maximum levels of vaccination, so that no one has to die,” Ryan said.
“The most important point is this: It is the deaths, it is the hospitalizations, it is the disruption of our social, economic, political systems that is causing this tragedy, not the virus,” he added.
Ryan also delved into the controversy over whether COVID-19 should be treated as something endemic – as some countries like Spain favor, in order to live with the problem – instead of a pandemic, which entails special measures to stop it. the contagion.
“Endemic malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people. HIV is endemic. Violence is endemic in urban centers. To say that something is endemic does not mean that something is good. To say something is endemic is to say it’s here forever,” Ryan said.
Public health experts have warned that COVID-19 is unlikely to be totally eliminated, predicting that it will likely continue to kill people, albeit in smaller numbers, even if it becomes endemic.
Another panelist, Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, cited the “tremendous urgency” to distribute vaccines more equitably and increase production.
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The WHO has emphatically criticized the inequality between rich and poor countries in terms of access to vaccines, calling it a moral failure. Photo: Panagiotis Balaskas, AP
Resources to combat the pandemic, Bucher added, “are being hoarded by a small number of corporations.”
WHO WARNS THAT GOING TO ENDEMIA IS NOT GOOD
The transformation of the pandemic into an endemic will not necessarily be good news nor will it mean seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, said Mike Ryan, who recalled that the goal is “that no one has to die” of COVID-19.
“People talk regarding pandemic versus endemic, but malaria is endemic, just like HIV, and it kills hundreds of thousands of people, so endemic is not a good thing, it just means it’s here forever. What we have to reach is low levels of incidence of the disease, with a maximum of people vaccinated and that no one has to die from this (COVID-19), “said the director of WHO Health Emergencies.
“That will be the end of the health emergency, the end of the pandemic,” he explained in a talk with other experts from the pharmaceutical sector and civil society within the framework of the Davos Agenda, a virtual event organized by the World Economic Forum .
Ryan, who is at the head of the team fighting to end the pandemic at the WHO, stressed that the world will not be able to end the virus, as it has become a pandemic and “will become part of the ecosystem”, but that can be left behind is the international health emergency caused by COVID-19.
“The issue (to be resolved) is deaths and hospitalizations, it is the alteration of our social, economic and political life, this is the tragedy. The virus is just a vehicle, what we have to consider is how society has reacted to it, with inequalities in access to health care and social inequality”, he commented.
During the talk, dedicated to the problem of access to vaccines that persists between high and low income countries, it was recalled that the COVAX platform -created to offer solutions to this situation- has overcome the barrier of one billion doses distributed to developing countries, despite the obstacles it faced, in particular the ban on the export of vaccines by India, which it had planned to be its main supplier.
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The transformation of the pandemic into an endemic will not necessarily be good news nor will it mean seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, said Mike Ryan, who recalled that the goal is “that no one has to die” of COVID-19. Photo: Dedi Sinuhaji, EFE
The director of GAVI, the alliance for vaccines and co-founder of COVAX with the WHO, Seth Berkley, pointed out that although the supply of vaccines has improved there might still be stumbling blocks in the next six months, in particular if vaccines for specific variants begin to be produced. of the coronavirus.
“We must be careful that if this happens it does not create a new situation of inequality and that the supply chain remains open,” Berkley stressed.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, was the main supplier of Covax, but in the second quarter of the year it stopped its exports due to a government order, which diverted this production to its own population, which was facing a brutal wave of covid-19. That ban was lifted last October.
The CEO of the Serum Institute, Adar Poonawalla, said today that between last January and December his company produced two billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with which it signed a technology transfer agreement to produce the serum in its facilities.
“Supply capacity is no longer a problem and we are ready to support Africa and anyone in need. We have doses available for you”, declared the executive.
-With information from Jamey Keaten via AP and Isabel Saco via EFE.
