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The World Health Organization, often criticized for being too slow to declare the start of a pandemic in 2020, says now – two years after making that declaration – many countries were too quick to declare it and let their guard down. .
The general manager of the organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, officially declaration coronavirus pandemic in the early evening On March 11, 2020, it was known that the virus was transmitted to more than 120,000 people in 114 countries and about 4,300 people died.
As an arm of the United Nations, then as now, it tended to be cautious and methodical. It was only after weeks of daily media briefings. called To contain the virus through testing, contact tracing, and isolation of those who may be infected in the organization’s nearly 200 member countries, Dr. Tedros made changes by calling the crisis a pandemic. He said he did this to get attention because many countries did not take the group’s earlier plans seriously. declaration a public health emergency.
It worked.
Executive director of the American Public Health Association, Dr. “My first comment on that day was that it was time,” Georges Benjamin said in an interview this week. “We’ve been in a pandemic for a while and we didn’t need to act this way. We needed this message to take action from a global perspective.”
That day, NBA suspends season and actors Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, announced that they had the virus. In the days that followed, Broadway closed its curtains, stock markets crashed, and schools and businesses closed their doors. President Donald J. Trump has closed the US borders to most travelers from continental Europe. The known death toll in the United States on March 11 was 1,263 cases and 37 deaths; will soon be a nation global epicenter Pandemic.
Two years later, American states and many countries are rushing to abandon public health measures, reduce testing and lift restrictions, citing the rapid decline in the Omicron surge – and the WHO says: Not that fast.
In various forums this week, the agency has called for continued vigilance, particularly over inequalities. In a stark update on the threat the virus continues to pose, WHO’s regional arm for the Americas said The Western Hemisphere, which has less than 13 percent of the world’s population, reported 63 percent of all known new coronavirus cases in the first two months of 2022.
“This virus has fooled us every time” said. “So they’re being appropriately cautious.”
The agency has been trying for months to prevent its wealthier member states from competing far ahead of the rest. WHO called in August a moratorium On booster vaccines to free up vaccine doses for billions of people still unvaccinated in poorer countries, not just for those who are immunocompromised. Until Tuesday, the agency wider approval empowering shots.
This was followed Wednesday by new advice to greatly increase the supply of self-testing kits in poor countries where professional testing can be quite expensive.
Dr. “This hinders our ability to see where the Covid-19 virus is, how it spreads and evolves,” Tedros said of the test shortage in poor countries.
However, it may take months for the testing initiative to make much progress. struggles Any guide from Covax, the global coronavirus vaccine distribution program. Only 14 percent of people in low-income countries received a dose, most of which Covax is intended to help. Our World in Data A project at Oxford University.
With more than 10 million new coronavirus cases reported last week—almost certainly an understatement because testing rates have dropped significantly—WHO’s biggest challenge right now is the same as it was two years ago: getting the member states funding its work to listen to their own risks. warnings.
Dr. “The epidemic is far from over,” Tedros said Wednesday, “and it will not end anywhere until it is everywhere.”
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