COVID-19 and the global challenges for 2022
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that at the current pace of vaccine rollout, 109 countries would miss out on fully vaccinating 70 per cent of their populations by the start of July 2022.
“Last week, I asked everyone to make a New Year’s resolution to get behind the campaign to vaccinate 70 per cent of people in every country by the middle of 2022,” he said in a statement copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.
According to him the essence of the disparity is that some countries are moving toward vaccinating citizens a fourth time, while others haven’t even had enough regular supply to vaccinate their health workers and those at most risk.
“Booster after booster in a small number of countries will not end a pandemic while billions remain completely unprotected,” he noted.
“But we can and must turn it around. In the short-term we can end the acute stage of this pandemic while preparing now for future ones.”
According to Dr Ghebreyesus, to make an impact, first of all vaccines that are being produced must be effectively shared.
“Throughout most of 2021 this was not the case but toward the end, supply increased,” he noted.
He said the “dawn of a new year offers an opportunity to renew our collective response to a shared threat.
He expressed the hope that global leaders who have shown “such resolve in protecting their own populations will extend that resolve to make sure that the whole world is safe and protected. And this pandemic will not end until we do that!”
He explained that to end the acute stage of the pandemic, the highly effective tools science has given us need to be shared fairly and quickly with all countries of the world.
Adding that vaccine “inequity and health inequity overall were the biggest failures of last year. While some countries have had enough personal protective equipment, tests and vaccines to stockpile throughout this pandemic, many countries do not have enough to meet basic baseline needs or modest targets, which no rich country would have been satisfied with.”
According to the WHO boss, vaccine inequity is a killer of people and jobs and it undermines a global economic recovery.
He explained that Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Omicron reflect that in part because of low vaccination rates, “we’ve created the perfect conditions for the emergence of virus variants.”
He said while Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorized as ‘mild.
According to him, just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalizing people and it is killing people.
“In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world. Hospitals are becoming overcrowded and understaffed, which further results in preventable deaths from not only COVID-19 but other diseases and injuries where patients cannot receive timely care.”
He stated that first-generation vaccines may not stop all infections and transmission but they remain highly effective in reducing hospitalization and death from this virus.
“Now it’s crucial that manufacturers and dose-donating countries share delivery timings ahead of time so that countries have adequate preparation to roll them out effectively.”
“Second, let’s take a ‘never again’ approach to pandemic preparedness and vaccine manufacturing so that as soon as the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines become available, they are produced equitably and countries don’t have to beg for scarce resources”, he urged.
“And finally, I call on citizens of the world, including civil society, scientists, business leaders, economists and teachers to demand that governments and pharmaceutical companies to share health tools globally and bring an end to the death and destruction of this pandemic.”
“We need vaccine equity, treatment equity, test equity and health equity and we need your voices to drive that change,” he added.
By Eunice Menka
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