“The world can bring the pandemic under control in a matter of months,” said WHO chief

GENEVA.- The world has the means to control the global Covid-19 pandemic in the months to come, provided the necessary resources are distributed fairly.said today the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in daily briefing.

The climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who joined the briefing as a virtual guest from Sweden, blasted against “vaccine nationalism” and said it was unethical for rich countries to prioritize immunization of their youngest citizens over vulnerable groups in developing countries.

“We have the tools to control this pandemic in a matter of months, if we apply them consistently and fairly”, by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

However, he was also concerned about the “alarming rate” at which Covid-19 is spreading among 25-59 year olds across the world, likely due to much more contagious variants. “” It took nine months to reach 1 million dead; 4 months to reach 2 million and 3 months to reach 3 million.

For its part, Thunberg noted that although one in four people in high-income countries has already been vaccinated against Covid-19, only one in over 500 people in the poorest countries have. “Vaccine nationalism is what controls vaccine distribution,” he said. “The only morally correct thing is to put the most vulnerable people first, whether they live in a high income or a low income country.”

Environmental damage

Thunberg also established a direct relationship between the pandemic and environmental destruction, which she said facilitated the leap of dangerous viruses from animal populations to humans.

“Science shows that we will experience more frequent and more devastating pandemics if we do not radically change our ways and the way we treat nature. We create the ideal conditions for diseases to pass from animal to animal and to us, ”he said.

Thunberg urged young people around the world to get vaccinated if they can, even if they are in the age group where the risk of contracting Covid-19 is lowest, out of “solidarity with people belonging to groups of [alto] risk”.

WHO Chief Epidemiologist, Maria van Kerkhove, said in the same presentation that the recent increase in Covid-19 infections around the world included increases among the age groups previously least affected by the pandemic.

“We are seeing an increase in transmission rates in all age groups,” he said, adding that last week around 5.2 million cases were reported, the largest weekly increase since the start. of the pandemic. “We are witnessing a slight change in age in some countries, due to social diversity”he added.

Today, the Greta Thunberg Foundation has announced that it will donate 100,000 euros to the system Covax fight against “the tragedy of vaccine inequality” against the pandemic, denounced by the young Swedish activist.

The sum will be donated to the WHO foundation and will be used to “purchase vaccines against COVID-19, as part of the global effort for equitable access to vaccines for those most at risk”, announced the WHO in a statement.

Reuters