GENEVA (Reuters) – The world could bring the global COVID-19 pandemic under control in the coming months, provided it distributes the necessary resources fairly, the head of the World Health Organization said in a newsletter on Monday.
Global climate change activist Greta Thunberg joined the briefing as a virtual guest from Sweden, and slammed “vaccine nationalism”, saying it was unethical for rich countries to prioritize their younger citizens before vaccination over vulnerable groups. in developing countries.
“We have the tools to bring this pandemic under control within a few months if we apply it consistently and fairly,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
However, he also expressed concern about the ‘alarming rate’ at which COVID-19 is spreading worldwide between 25 and 59 years old, possibly due to much more contagious variants.
“It took nine months to reach one million deaths; 4 months to reach 2 million and 3 months to reach 3 million.”
Thunberg said that while one in four people in high-income countries has now been vaccinated against COVID-19, only one in more than 500 people in poorer countries has been given a chance.
“Vaccine nationalism is what drives the distribution of vaccines,” she said.
“The only morally right thing to do is to prioritize the people who are most vulnerable, whether they live in a high-income or low-income country.”
Environmental damage
Thunberg also drew a direct link between the pandemic and the environmental destruction that she said made the danger of viruses much easier to jump from animal populations to humans.
“Science shows that we will experience more frequent, devastating pandemics unless we drastically change our ways and the way we treat nature … We create ideal conditions for diseases to pass from one animal to another and to us to rinse over, “she said.
Thunberg urged young people everywhere to be vaccinated if given the opportunity, even though they are the age group that COVID-19 runs with the least risk, out of ‘solidarity with people in the (high) risk groups’.
A leading WHO epidemiologist, Maria van Kerkhove, said at the same briefing that the latest increase in COVID-19 infections worldwide includes an increase in age groups that were previously less affected by the pandemic.
“We are seeing increasing transmission rates in all age groups,” she said, adding that about 5.2 million cases were reported last week, the highest weekly increase since the onset of the pandemic.
“We are seeing a slight age shift in some countries, driven by social mixing,” she added.
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