WHO chief: current system deprives countries of incentive to alert others to threats as it deprives countries of the incentive to warn other states of threats. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adanom Ghebreyesus, criticized the current ways of confronting the spread of the coronavirus and announced the need for a new agreement on pandemics. A broadcast of his speech is available on the WHO YouTube channel.
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The emergence of a new and rapidly spreading variant of COVID-19 underscores the danger of the situation, Gebreyesus said. “South Africa and Botswana should be thanked, not punished, for discovering and reporting a new strain,” he said.
“Our ability to end a pandemic is a test of our collective ability to prevent and effectively respond to pandemics in the future, because the fight against them will be based on the same principles, “concluded the head of WHO.
Earlier, Ghebreyesus said that no country in the world can defeat the coronavirus pandemic by focusing on vaccination exclusively of its own citizens. The head of WHO called on states to fight unequal access to vaccines, since the longer this inequality exists, the more opportunities for the virus to spread and evolve along a path that cannot be predicted and prevented.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken thanked the head Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) Naledi Pandor for the rapid identification of the omicron strain of coronavirus and the prompt dissemination of this information. He noted that this should serve as an example to the whole world.