The coronavirus pandemic is “not necessarily the
big one,” senior W.H.O. official says.
By Anna
Schaverien
Dec. 29,
2020
One of the World Health Organization’s senior officials
warned on Monday that although the coronavirus pandemic has been “very severe,”
it is “not necessarily the big one.”
Reflecting
on the year in the W.H.O.’s final media briefing of 2020, the head of the
emergencies program, Michael Ryan, said that his words may come as a shock.
More than
1.7 million people worldwide have died this year from Covid-19, more than 81
million cases have been recorded and the spread of the coronavirus has been
unrelenting in many countries.
“These
threats will continue,” Dr. Ryan said. “If there’s one thing we need to take
from this pandemic with all the tragedy and loss is that we need to get our act
together. We need to get ready for something that may even be more severe in
the future.”
Dr. Ryan
acknowledged that much progress has been made on improving how we communicate
and govern during this pandemic, but, he said, this year was a “wake up call”
and “we must honor those we’ve lost by getting better at what we do every day.”
Striking a
similarly solemn tone, David Heymann, the chair of the W.H.O.’s strategic and
technical advisory group for infectious hazards, predicted that SARS-CoV-2, the
novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, would become endemic, like the other
human coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS that have spread in recent years.
Coronavirus
vaccination programs, the W.H.O. said, would be integral to saving lives and
protecting vulnerable people.
Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.’s director general, promised that the
organization would “not rest until those in need everywhere, in all countries,
have access to vaccines and are protected.”
Anna
Schaverien covers news from Britain and Europe. She is based in London. @annaschav
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