We’re Not In the Pandemic ‘Endgame’ Yet, WHO Chief Warns

The head of the World Health Organization is warning in opposition to pandemic hubris. On Monday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that Omicron will not be the final essential variant of the pandemic to look and that speak of a pandemic “endgame” remains to be untimely. At the identical time, he was optimistic that this might be the final yr of the pandemic’s “acute” section, as long as essential objectives like vaccinating 70% of the world’s inhabitants are reached.

He made the feedback throughout an government board assembly in the present day, the AP reported. Amid dialogue of world well being points like local weather change, antibiotic resistance, and tobacco use, Ghebreyesus talked concerning the close to way forward for the covid-19 pandemic.

“There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end. But it’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame,” Tedros mentioned.

The Omicron variant emerged late final November and rapidly overtook the beforehand dominant Delta variant to grow to be the first circulating type of the coronavirus worldwide, together with within the U.S. Though Omicron has turned out to be milder on common than Delta, it has been extra able to sickening folks with prior immunity, and lots of international locations have needed to face a resurgent peak of sickness this winter.

Vaccines are nonetheless blunting the affect of Omicron, although, and international locations with very excessive vaccination charges have skilled a a lot smaller to no enhance in deaths throughout their newest peaks than prior to now. Less vaccinated areas just like the U.S. haven’t been so fortunate; over the weekend, the U.S. reported one among its deadliest days of the pandemic so far, with greater than 3,500 deaths (even now, although, a few of these deaths might have been from the Delta variant, which was broadly circulating earlier than Omicron).

Cases within the U.S. and different areas hit laborious by Omicron are starting to say no from their peaks. And some consultants have expressed optimism that after this newest peak ends, the U.S. and the world shall be in significantly better form transferring ahead. Importantly, nevertheless, this expectation is no less than partly contingent on the belief that Omicron would be the final main headache now we have to cope with within the close to future—and that isn’t a positive factor, in response to Tedros. “On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge,” he mentioned. Indeed, whereas Omicron remains to be the principle risk round, there are nonetheless different variants of interest that would trigger hassle.

That mentioned, there’s purpose to be hopeful. There may be a number of new and efficient covid-19 therapies and vaccines obtainable this yr, together with a vaccine explicitly meant for the low- and middle-income international locations the place vaccination charges are lowest. And ought to the world attain the 70% vaccination charge advisable by companies just like the WHO by the center of this yr, 2022 may very effectively be the tip of covid-19 being a “global health emergency,” Tedros mentioned. These vaccines ought to ideally be given to these on the highest threat of extreme covid-19. And vaccination ought to be a part of a wider effort to mitigate the pandemic, which can even want to incorporate testing and surveillance packages to maintain a watch out for potential new variants. Currently, simply over 60% of the world has received no less than one covid-19 vaccine dose, although lower than 10% of these within the poorest international locations have.

As many scientists and international locations have additionally acknowledged, Tedros famous that covid-19 isn’t going away anytime quickly, even as soon as the pandemic is over. “But learning to live with covid cannot mean that we give this virus a free ride,” he added. “It cannot mean that we accept almost 50,000 deaths a week from a preventable and treatable disease.”