WHO says coronavirus pandemic is ‘not the biggest’ the world should support

The global case of coronavirus-transmitted disease COVID-19 climbed to above 81.4 million on Tuesday and the World Health Organization said the pandemic was not necessarily the biggest the world should support, urging people everywhere to get out of this crisis to learn.

Ryan’s head of emergencies, Mike Ryan, said during the agency’s final press release for 2020 that the coronavirus pandemic is severe and is affecting every corner of the planet.

“But it’s not necessarily the greatest,” he said. “It’s a wake-up call. We are now learning how to do things better – science, logistics, training and management, how to communicate better. But the planet is fragile. We live in an increasingly complex global society. These threats will continue. If there’s anything we need to get out of this pandemic, with all the tragedy and loss, [it] is [that] we have to get it right. We must honor those we have lost by getting better at what we do every day. ”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the collaboration between the private and public sectors, which has led to the development of several vaccines in record time, which are now being rolled out around the world. It’s an incredible scientific achievement, ‘he said.

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The WHO is working closely with scientists to understand the new variants of COVID-19 that have emerged in the UK and South Africa and to evaluate whether they spread faster or make people sicker and any potential impact on testing , have treatments and vaccines.

“We are working specifically with scientists in the UK and South Africa conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies, which will lead the next steps,” he said.

Meanwhile, the WHO is working to ensure that the vaccines are made available to “the needy everywhere” and reminds people that, even with the distribution of vaccines, they must comply with public safety measures – wash hands regularly, remove and carry them socially ‘ a face mask in public.


‘It [failure to meet vaccine targets in the U.S.] feels in so many ways like a disappointment, but I am unfortunately not surprised, given how the test went, detection does not exist at all, and how we are caught off guard by this new [virus] due to our lack of genomic surveillance. ‘


Kavita Patel, primary care physician and health policy expert who served in the Obama White House

The U.S. has so far vaccinated 2.1 million people and distributed more than 11 million doses of the two vaccines that have authorized emergency use, one developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE,
+ 0.20%
with its German partner BioNTech SE BNTX,
-0.30%
and one developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
+ 1.62%,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is far below the early predictions of ‘Operation Warp Speed’, the federal program created to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, according to Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and health policy expert who served in the Obama White House.

Patel’s clinic is one of the areas part of the vaccination strategy in the District of Columbia, she said in an interview on MSNBC.

“In October, we heard from Operation Warp Speed ​​that we would have 100 million doses by the end of the year,” she said. “We thought it was unreasonable. Then the expectation dropped to 40 million and then to 20 million by the end of December. We applied 2.2 million, which is less than the 20 million. ”

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The failure to achieve the vaccine goals, “feels like a disappointment in so many ways, but I am unfortunately not surprised, given how the test went, detection does not exist at all, and how we are caught guarding by this new [virus] due to our lack of genomic surveillance, ”she said.

According to the New York Times tracker, the U.S. recorded at least 188,934 new cases of COVID on Monday, and at least 1,899 people died. In the past week, the US averaged 183,124 cases per day.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals rose to a record 121,235, reaching a record high of 120,151 on December 24th.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. still leads the global lead through cases at 19.3 million and deaths at 334,967, or about a fifth of world counts.

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In other news:

“Israel has now vaccinated more people against COVID-19 than has been infected with the virus since the outbreak began,” the Jerusalem Post reported, citing data from Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. In just nine days in the country’s vaccination campaign, 495,000 Israelis were administered, compared with 407,285 confirmed cases of the disease. Israel expects to vaccinate 150,000 people a day, allowing it to vaccinate 2.25 million people within a month and a half, or about a quarter of the full population.

• According to health officials quoted by the Guardian, the new COVID variant hitting the UK since November is likely to be in Germany, following the death of a patient with the variant in the north of the country. The patient was an elderly man with underlying health conditions, whose wife was also infected but survived. The couple allegedly contracted the virus from their daughter who traveled to the UK in mid-November.

• The shares of the biotechnology company Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. fell 55% on Tuesday when investors reacted to the results of a Phase 1/2 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate that was disappointing, according to an analyst. San Diego-based Arcturus ARCT,
-54.49%
said late Monday that the approval had been obtained from the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore to proceed with a Phase 2 study of its ARCT-021 vaccine candidate that would enroll up to 600 volunteers. The approval is based on phase 1/2 trial data that showed that the vaccine produced neutralizing antibodies after one dose, although at lower levels than competing vaccine candidates. Arcturus hopes the vaccine does not require a shot shot, making it easier to administer than vaccines that require two doses. Raymond James said the data is ‘overwhelming’. ‘Although this latest dataset ARCT-021, which enables the protection against COVID-19 infection in phase 3, can not harm single-shot ARCT-021, the lack of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody (NAb) titers at or above levels seen in restorative sera reduce our confidence that ARCT-021 will be able to achieve competitive levels of single-dose vaccine efficacy, ‘analysts led by Stephen Seedhouse wrote in a note to clients.

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reintroduced a ban on alcohol sales and ordered that all pubs be closed as part of new restrictions to help the country fight a coronavirus revival, including a new one. variant, reported Associated Press. Ramaphosa has also closed the closure of all beaches and public swimming pools in the country’s infection points, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and several coastal areas. In addition, South Africa is extending its night clock by four hours, which requires all residents to be home from 21:00 to 06:00, the president said. ‘Reckless behavior due to alcohol poisoning has contributed to increased transmission. “Alcohol-related accidents and violence are putting pressure on our emergency units in the hospital,” Ramaphosa said in a nationwide speech.

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Latest scores

The Johns Hopkins data show on Tuesday the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide to above 81.4 million and the death toll is 1.77 million. At least 46 million people have recovered from COVID-19.

Brazil has the second highest death toll at 191,570 and is third at 7.5 million.

India is second in cases worldwide with 10.2 million and third in deaths at 148,153.

Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 122,855 and the 13th highest fall is 1.4 million.

Italy has 72,370 deaths, the highest in Europe, and 2.0 million cases. The UK has 2.3 million cases, the most in Europe, and 71,217 deaths, the second highest in Europe and the sixth highest in the world.

China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has 95,953 confirmed cases and 4,777 deaths, according to official figures.

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