WHO warns: "What is happening in India may happen elsewhere"

The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that “what is happening in India and Brazil”, in relation to the uncontrolled situation of the Covid-19 pandemic “could occur in other places »if the measures to avoid contagion are not followed. What is happening in India and Brazil could happen elsewhere unless we all take these public health precautions that the WHO has been calling for since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccines are part of the answer, but they are not the only answer, “said Tedros at a press conference this Monday from Geneva (Switzerland). The top leader of the United Nations international health body has warned that “in the last two weeks more cases of Covid-19 have been reported worldwide than during the first six months of the pandemic.” “India and Brazil account for more than half of the Covid-19 cases last week, but there are many other countries around the world that are facing a very fragile situation,” he pointed out. In his speech, he thanked Sweden for donating one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the COVAX Mechanism, but asked the other countries to get involved as well. “We call on other countries to follow the example that these countries have set, and donate through COVAX to help accelerate equitable distribution and access,” he claimed.Tedros has detailed that COVAX has already sent almost 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to 121 countries and economies, but has lamented that “there are still serious supply limitations.” “Resolving this dilemma requires courageous leadership from the world’s largest economies,” he insisted. WHO estimates that it will need “between $ 35-45 billion more next year to vaccinate most of the world’s adults.” Therefore, Tedros has reminded the G7 countries, whose summit begins tomorrow, that “they could mobilize a substantial part of these funds themselves and lead a global effort to accelerate vaccination against Covid-19 around the world.” Release the patent on vaccines In this sense, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also encouraged richer countries to donate doses. “To protect ourselves locally, we have to act globally. It is not charity, it is a matter of national security, “he defended. In this regard, he denounced that “one in two people is vaccinated in much of the West, but less than 1 in 100 in sub-Saharan Africa.” “By not extending vaccination more quickly to all countries, we are choosing who lives and who dies. No one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere, ”he insisted.Faced with this shortage of doses, Tedros has once again claimed the need to release patents: “The temporary suspension of patents on vaccines would be very important. We thank South Africa and India for proposing it. We hope that more countries will join in to make this a reality. If we are not going to use all the tools now, when? This is something that is unprecedented. We hope that all leaders agree to use all options to increase vaccine production as soon as possible. We hope a decision will be made soon. The provision for temporary suspension of patents was designed for this. ‘ In this context, Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO, has pointed out that COVAX expects to receive some 20 million doses from India, in contrast to the 100 million expected due to the severity of the pandemic in the country. «The gap to be bridged is greater. We hope that the crisis in India passes so that the country can export doses of vaccines as it did before, “he acknowledged. “We do not expect the Serum Institute of India to be able to export the same amount as before,” admitted WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, who noted that India “needs to vaccinate about 1 billion people” for the vaccination “has an impact” on reducing infections.