WHO press conference on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) - 7 July 2021
00:00:26
TJ Hello
to everyone. Welcome to the WHO press conference on COVID-19, July 7th
2021. My name is Tarik Jasarevic and we will hear from our experts here at WHO
on the latest situation and we will be able to answer your questions today.
As always we have interpretation in six UN
languages plus Hindi and Portuguese so journalists wishing to ask questions
should click on the icon raise hand. Be brief and be able to use any of those
six languages plus Portuguese to ask the question. In the room with us we have
Dr Tedros, WHO Director-General, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead on
COVID-19, Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Programme for
Emergencies, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, our Chief Scientist and we also have Dr
Mariangela Simao, Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health
Products.
We have a couple of other WHO experts online who
will be there to answer any questions relevant to their field of expertise.
Today we will have to finish the press briefing at 4:00 Geneva time because
interpreters have another assignment to do so hopefully questions will be brief
and we will try to be brief in our answers. With this I'll give the floor to Dr
Tedros for his opening remarks.
00:02:10
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Tarik. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. The world
is at a perilous point in this pandemic. We have just passed the tragic
milestone of four million recorded COVID-19 deaths which likely underestimates
the overall toll.
Some countries with high vaccination coverage
are now planning to roll out booster shots in the coming months and are
dropping public health and social measures and are relaxing as though the
pandemic is already over.
However compounded by fast-moving variants and shocking
inequity in vaccination far too many countries in every region of the world are
seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation. This is leading to an acute
shortage of oxygen, treatments and driving a wave of death in parts of Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
Vaccine nationalism where a handful of nations
have taken the lion's share is morally indefensible and an ineffective public
health strategy against a respiratory virus that's mutating quickly and
becoming increasingly effective at moving from human to human.
00:03:39
At this stage in the pandemic the fact that
millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is
abhorrent. Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of
inequitable vaccine production and distribution which also threatens the global
economic recovery.
It didn't have to be this way and it doesn't
have to be this way going forward. From a moral, epidemiological or economic
point of view now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this
pandemic collectively.
Later this week G20 finance ministers and
central bank governors will meet. This is another crucial opportunity for
leaders to take urgent steps to end the acute stage of this pandemic, providing
the necessary funding to scale up the equitable manufacturing and distribution
of health tools.
I have called repeatedly for 10% of people in
all countries to be vaccinated by September and for that figure to rise to 40%
by the end of the year. It would position the world on the path to vaccinating
70% of the people in all countries by the middle of 2022.
00:05:08
I call on the G20 finance ministers and other
leaders to get behind these targets collectively because it's the fastest way
to end the acute stage of the pandemic, save lives and livelihoods and drive a
truly global economic recovery.
We're making scientific breakthroughs in global
trials but the impact is limited if we don't share them equitably. It's not
charity. It's the best way to end the acute stage of this pandemic, slow virus
variants down and drive a global economic recovery.
Just yesterday we recommended the use of IL6
receptor blockers, a type of monoclonal antibody, in patients with severe or
critical COVID-19. This treatment along with corticosteroids is strongly
recommended for patients with severe or critical disease.
This followed a comprehensive new analysis of 27
randomised trials involving nearly 11,000 patients which found that treating
hospitalised COVID-19 patients with IL6 receptor blockers reduces the risk of
death and the need for mechanical ventilation. The study was co-ordinated by
WHO and is an outstanding example of collaboration amongst trialists and
methodologists that allowed us to transparently bring high-quality evidence
from around the world together, analyse it and develop timely recommendations.
00:07:09
The trial demonstrated that for the critically
ill the use of IL6 receptor blockers led to approximately 28 fewer deaths for
every 1,000 patients. The medicines also meant the chance of severe and
critically ill patients being put on a ventilator was reduced by 28% compared
with standard care.
So together with corticosteroids these drugs
help to decouple cases from deaths by saving further lives and preventing
people with COVID-19 from progressing to even more severe illness. I also want
to put on record my thanks for the global collaboration between international
researchers and the patients who agreed to be part of the trials.
However, like vaccines and other health tools,
this breakthrough will only be effective if we can scale up manufacturing and
distribute equitably. At present IL6 receptor blockers remain inaccessible and
unaffordable for the majority of the world but it's within the power of
governments and manufactures to change that.
Going forward it's key that the therapeutic arm
of the ACT Accelerator is fully funded so further research and development can
uncover more life-saving medicines for the prevention and treatment of
COVID-19.
00:08:51
The pandemic has been hard on everyone but it
has been particularly difficult for children. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to
many more children experiencing domestic violence and psychosocial distress
which has been compounded by distractions to their education, support networks
and care services.
We know that violence affected far too many
children before the pandemic. It's widespread and often hidden from public view
in homes, schools, communities and online. Children who are exposed to violence
and trauma are significantly more likely to develop mental health conditions
including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and behavioural and
substance use disorders.
00:09:52
They're also more likely to die by suicide.
Urgent action is required to address the mental health impacts of violence and
trauma experienced during childhood and which has been amplified during this
pandemic.
Tomorrow I will join Her Majesty Queen Matilda
of the Belgians along with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, UNICEF
Executive Director, Henrietta Ford, and other leaders to discuss the impact of
violence on the mental health of children.
As well as looking to accelerate the end of this
pandemic, giving children the support they need must be a top priority as we
come out of it. We must help them come to terms with what they have experienced
and have a chance at a more hopeful future. I hope you will join us.
Finally we're shocked by the tragic news from
Haiti and want to express our deepest condolences on the passing of President
Jovenal Moise to his family and friends and to the whole nation, Haiti. Our
condolences as well to the people of Haiti at this terrible time. Tarik, back
to you.
TJ Thank
you, Dr Tedros. I'll open the floor to questions and we will ask journalists to
be brief and ask only one question if possible. We will start with Norwegian
Broadcasting Agency and we have Peter Swar with us. Peter, please unmute
yourself.
00:11:55
PE Thank
you very much; a question for Dr Tedros. Just to follow up on your introduction
there when you talked about the vaccine inequity being morally indefensible,
the Norwegian Government recently announced its intention to vaccinate 16 and
17-year-olds although the final decision will be made in September and several
other European nations have recently made similar decisions.
How do you view Norway and other countries who
are planning to vaccinate teenagers with little to no risk?
TJ Thank
you very much, Peter, for this question. We have online Ann Lindstrand who is
Unit Head of the Essential Programme on Immunisation, who may address this
question. Ann, please unmute yourself.
AN Yes,
thank you from Norway. I think several countries are considering, thinking of
using the COVID-19 vaccines in the paediatric population now that large parts
of the adult population have been reached.
00:13:00
To date SAGFE, our strategic advisory group of
experts, have recommended the possible use of Pfizer vaccine particularly which
is so far the only one that has granted particularly the EU role from Iman FDA
down to even 12 years of age and EUL for WHO is down to 16 and we are looking
at the data very quickly; we'll probably also have EUL for paediatric use down
to 12 years.
The vaccine is safe and efficacious in the
population. However as we well know it's not the paediatric population that is
suffering the most from the COVID-19 vaccine infection when it comes to severe
consequences of the infection.
It is the adults and it's the medical risk
groups and so the consideration here from SAGE was really to say, yes, you can
use it but be mindful about the limited supply that Dr Tedros just talked
about, that we are all painfully aware of and please consider in this limited
supply that before going and expanding into paediatric population groups you
would first consider actually sharing the doses with COVAX or dose-sharing with
another mechanism to other parts of the world where the doses are needed much
more.
So that's a recommendation from SAGE and so the
vaccines are safe and efficacious but in this pandemic right now, the situation
we're in, for all the reasons that Dr Tedros was giving the vaccine equitable
access is more important to protect vulnerable healthcare workers or elderly in
low-income countries before expanding into populations in high-income countries
that may not suffer the same consequences of the infection. Thank you.
00:15:15
TJ Thank
you very much, Dr Lindstrand, our Unit Head for the Essential Programme on
Immunisation. Let's go to AFP and we have Robin Miller with us. Robin.
RO Thank
you. England is dropping almost all of its COVID restrictions on July 19th
including the requirement to wear masks indoors including shops and on public
transport. At a time when cases are shooting up with 100,000 daily cases
forecast within weeks what does the panel think of this decision? Thank you.
MK Thanks
for the question. I can start and others may want to come in. As you know,
we're tracking this virus circulation all over the world and we're seeing sharp
increases in cases in far too many countries right now around the world,
countries that are in all WHO regions around the world.
00:16:17
Our recommendations remain the same, of taking a
comprehensive approach. Having said that, this comprehensive approach includes
good surveillance, robust surveillance, active testing and testing that gets
results back quickly so that appropriate care can be given in isolation for
infected individuals, so that contact tracing can take place, so that we
prevent the onward spread.
It means ensuring that our health workers are
protected, are trained, are working and operating in a safe environment, having
the supplies that we need to care for individuals and carry out all of these
necessary actions to prevent infections, to prevent the spread, to save lives
and to get our economies back on track.
So we continue to recommend a comprehensive
approach to suppressing transmission. Having said that, the guidance that we
lay out is up to the governments to set those policies, to enact them. What we
recommend are agile, adaptive approaches that are based on the local situation,
taking into account the intensity of transmission and if trends are increasing,
if trends are decreasing and looking at the intensity and the level of
interventions that are needed in place.
This includes individual-level measures; it
includes making sure that communities are well-informed to know what they need
to do in the areas that they live in. So our recommendations remain the same;
our goal is to suppress transmission, is to save lives and so we need those
policies in place in all countries to be able to carry those out and we need
people supported in being able to carry out those levels of action.
00:17:56
MR I
think it's also a moment for extreme caution for countries right now. It's been
good to see the drop-off in hospitalisations and deaths in many countries that
are achieving high vaccination levels. I wish we could achieve that in all
countries with increasing vaccination levels for the most vulnerable but that's
not to say that it's not a good thing in the countries where it's been
achieved.
What we are seeing though even in Europe - all
regions of WHO have increasing cases in this last week. There's been a 33%
increase in cases in the European region in the last week so this is not a flat
curve; this is an increasing curve.
Making assumptions that transmission will not
increase because we're opening up because of vaccine is a false assumption.
Transmission will increase when you open up because, number one, we don't have
vaccines in everybody and, number two, the vaccine coverage rates are lower and
we're not still sure to what extent vaccination protects against the ability to
be infected or have onward transmission.
00:19:07
This means with increased transmission in the
community we then put our most vulnerable at risk again and there are many
countries that have not achieved levels of vaccination amongst their most
vulnerable, their older and people with underlying conditions or younger people
with underlying conditions even that would make lifting of all public health
and special measures prudent at this time.
Each country has to make its own decision. We're
not here to be a nanny state to countries but simple, straightforward
individual and personal measures that reduce the risk of you transmitting virus
or being exposed like mask-wearing are very simple, they're very effective and
it's all about your own personal risk management.
It's about preventing being exposed to the virus
and preventing you exposing others to the virus. It's about proximity; how
close you are to other people. It's about density; how many people are with you
in the area you're in, is it inside. It's about duration; how long am I
spending in that environment?
00:20:13
So you would imagine that underground transport
for example - the example you gave - is potentially prolonged contact with many
individuals in an enclosed indoor space. Individuals need to make their own
decisions. People are smart, people have common sense, although some people say
common sense is not that common.
It's very important now that individuals
themselves look to what's happening around them. Maria has said this many times
here in the past; look around in your community, know the local numbers. If the
virus is present in your community and transmitting and you're a vulnerable
person and you're not vaccinated then you are potentially going to be exposed.
So the idea that everyone is protected and it's
Kum Ba Yah and everything goes back to normal, I think, right now is a very
dangerous assumption anywhere in the world and it's still a very dangerous
assumption in the European environment.
00:21:05
A lot of gains have been won over the last
number of months; many countries have suffered; even the high-vaccination
countries have suffered; their health systems have suffered. We need to think
about what we truly value.
Do we value going back to school in September,
do we value our universities going back online, do we value our workplaces and
can we then continue to maintain key behaviours that reduce risk of
transmission, key public health measures that reduce the risk of transmission
without disrupting normal life to the extent to which we've had that disruption
over the last year-and-a-half?
So I would say - and I'm not going to comment on
specific circumstances but I would ask governments, we would ask governments to
be really careful at this moment not to lose the gains you've made, to open up
very carefully.
We've seen over the last six months case after
case, country after country in which there was a lot of increase in social
mixing without adequate vaccine coverage and we've seen wave after wave of
cases.
I would hope that in the European environment we
won't see a return to the overwhelmed hospitals and the exhausted health
workers but that's not a given.
00:22:16
This virus is evolving, this virus is changing
and we need to be very, very careful at this moment so that the gains that have
been hard-won by the behaviours and action of our population are sustained and
that we gain the benefit collectively of all of that effort.
So individual behaviour and government support
to that behaviour; extremely important and I would urge extreme caution in the
complete lifting of public health and social measures at this time because
there are consequences for that.
TJ Thanks
to Dr Van Kerkhove and Dr Ryan. Let's move to the next question. We have the
Indonesian service of Voice of America; Yuni Salim. Yuni, if you could unmute
yourself, please.
YU Thank
you. My question is regarding the [unclear]. Is there any update on WHO policy
on the clinical trial [unclear] on the use of Ivermectin, the COVID treatment
which is being widely used in Indonesia and other countries because of the
spike of infection?
00:23:31
How long will the clinical trial last and what
is needed so WHO can make a statement it's okay to be used as part of the
treatment?
TJ Thank
you very much, Yuni. The line wasn't the best but I think we got the question;
it's about Ivermectin and the trials around these treatments. We have Janet
Diaz online, who is leading on the clinical aspects of COVID-19. Janet, would
you please address this question?
JD Thank
you and thank you for the very important question. Just to also acknowledge
that we recently, as the DG nicely shared with you, updated our clinical
guidance so we did have a strong recommendation for the use of IL6 receptor
blockers in patients with severe and critical COVID-19 for both life-saving,
reducing mortality and reducing the need for invasive mechanical ventilation
when used on top of corticosteroids.
I think that's a really important advancement in
our clinical management and guidelines and I just wanted to take this
opportunity to emphasise that again and to thank all those that participated in
the trials; the trialists and the patients and their families.
00:24:44
In regard to Ivermectin we are continuously
looking at the data for Ivermectin. We have a living systematic review that
reviews new publications and incorporates that into our meta-analysis which is
the way that we bring trial results from different studies around the world
into one evidence synthesis in order to understand, is there a benefit or is
there not.
Since our last update on Ivermectin we continue
to have the same recommendation which is only to use Ivermectin in the context
of clinical trials. That was based on a very low certainty of evidence when we
did our meta-analysis and just to highlight the number of patients that were
enrolled that actually had mortality data or need for mechanical ventilation, they
were low numbers; 1,419 patients for mortality; 687 for need for invasive
ventilation, meaning that we just needed more trials, which is why we wrote
that recommendation as a special recommendation to really encourage to wait for
more trial data in order to refine and update that recommendation.
00:25:52
So at this point we have not updated it since
that publication which was at the end of March but we are closely following the
literature and will update when it's necessary so thank you.
TJ Thank
you, Dr Diaz, for this. Now we will move on to the next question; John from
Reuters. John Miller from Reuters. John, please.
JO Thank
you for taking my question. It sounds as if you're sharpening your tone a bit
with countries that have held large events, particularly in your remarks to
open the meeting today. I'm wondering, do you think that we will look back on
the Copa America and the Euro with regret because cases will rise in those
countries that held the events after they're over? Thanks very much.
MR Thanks,
John. If you think that was a sharp tone you don't know me. I think what we've
been trying to continually reinforce no matter what the setting, whether the
setting is a situation in country in government policy, whether it's managing
schools, whether it's managing mass-gathering events is taking a risk
management approach; knowing the risks, knowing the local epidemiology, trying
to reduce the risk of transmission to the lowest possible level in the
circumstances and ensuring that the activity that's been undertaken, whether
that's a school activity or something else, is prioritised by everybody as
being something that's necessary, as something that should go ahead and that
has social, cultural and other value then you work so hard to try and reduce
those risks.
00:27:40
So we're not sharpening our tone; what we're
saying is, please stick to the plan. Risk management hasn't been perfect in
this pandemic but it has saved a lot of lives. It has slowed down the pandemic
at key times, it has kept the pressure off the health system, it has allowed
health workers and others to save many more lives by doing that.
Our hope was and still is that with vaccination
we will take the pain, the tragedy and the suffering out of the pandemic. We're
not there yet and that's what we're saying; we're not there yet. We need to
stick to the plan so we need to be careful. It doesn't matter what the event
is.
In terms of gathering events and looking back,
I'm sure many people will look back with many regrets. The real question when
you look back on anything is whether or not you can reassure yourself that you
understood risks, that you tried to manage and reduce those risks to zero and
when something happened you reacted to that reality.
00:28:36
I'm not going to comment on specific events or
mass gatherings. What I would want to make sure is all of those individuals and
countries and institutions planning events in the coming months; that due care
and attention be paid to managing the risks associated with that.
It's exactly the same as opening schools,
opening universities, managing social life. Moving forward we need to ensure
that social engagements where people come together; that we assess the risks,
we inform people and we manage and reduce those risks to as close to zero as possible
and we're able to prioritise which of those events and which of those social
gatherings are necessary, are valuable to our society.
I think overall there's been a huge
collaboration around the world in many institutions organising virtual events,
scaled-back events, no-spectator events and gradually learning more and more
about how to manage those risks associated with sports and other gatherings.
00:29:45
We're seeing a tremendous amount of new
knowledge being generated and new techniques and new approaches. We would just
like to see all of that knowledge approach used so that as we move forward now
over the coming six months or a year we apply all of that learning around
mass-gathering events, around all of that so we absolutely do whatever we can
to reduce the risk of transmission associated with those events. Maria.
MK Yes,
thanks. I can attest that if you think that was Mike being sharp then you don't
know him very well. But I think we've been very blunt; I think we try to speak
openly, honestly, with humility but we need to be blunt when we need to be
blunt. The global situation is... We're not in a good place.
The DG has said it many times, every time he
speaks; we're not in a good place. In Africa there was a 16.7% increase in
cases in the last seven days. There was a 16.4% increase in the Eastern
Mediterranean region, a 33% increase in cases across Europe, an 8.6% increase
in South-east Asia, a 10% increase in the Western Pacific.
00:30:52
The only region that had a decline in cases was
the Americas but if you break that down by country - I counted again this
morning - there are more than two dozen countries that have epidemic curves
that are almost vertical right now, almost vertical. This is not the situation
we should be in when we have tools at hand.
There are four major factors that are driving
transmission. One is the virus itself. This is a dangerous virus to begin with.
Now we have these virus variants that have increased transmissibility. The
delta variant is now detected in 104 countries, the alpha variant in 173
countries, the beta variants in 122 countries and the gamma variant in 74.
Some countries have all four of these variants
of concern circulating. The delta variant has increased transmissibility, even
more increased transmissibility than the alpha variant. If that virus takes
hold it will spread.
The second factor is mixing so you mentioned
some specific events. We know that the social mixing, the social mobility of
people is increasing around the world. These are small gatherings, whether
these are at somebody's home and you have other families that are coming
together, perhaps indoors, maybe not outdoors, maybe you don't have the right
restrictions in place or interventions in place like distancing or masks for
example, or large events.
00:32:14
We know that these events around the world,
whether they're sporting events or the associated side-events, the fan-zones
that you see of people outside; religious events, religious gatherings; many
different types of gatherings whether they are spontaneous protests for example
or not drive transmission because you bring people together if the right
interventions are not in place.
The third factor is reduced use, inappropriate
use of public health and social measures. The use of these measures does not
mean lock-down. Public health and social measures are not lock-down. It's a
combination of interventions from the individual level to the community level
and it covers everything from wearing a mask, physical distancing, avoiding the
three Cs, these crowded indoor spaces, spending more time outdoors than
indoors, improving ventilation, keeping your hands clean, etc, etc.
00:33:11
The last factor that's challenging us right now
is the inequitable and uneven distribution of vaccines and you've heard us talk
about this over and over again. Large parts of the world remain susceptible to
infection. If you have variants of concern that are circulating, if you have
increased social mobility and social mixing, if you have the inappropriate use
of public health and social measures and you have a very susceptible population
the virus will thrive.
The virus is showing us right now that it's
thriving. This is not theoretical. We're not talking about a what-if situation
right now; we're not talking about preparing for a surge. It's happening now so
what are we learning?
The question was about regrets. The question
should be, what should we do now in taking all the knowledge that we have? We
have the upper hand here. The virus is mutating, it's changing. Even the delta
variant itself is mutating and it will continue to do so. We still have the
upper hand. Let's use the tools that we have to keep transmission down, drive
down transmission and really be smart; play it safe, be smart, do what we can
at individual level, have really strong policies that are agile, that adapt to
the local situation.
00:34:24
We all really need to play our part here and do
what we can do drive this transmission down. The virus has a hold over us right
now and we need to regain control over this virus.
TJ Thank
you very much. We have ten minutes left so let's try to take a few more
questions. We have Naomi Ringley from BBC. Naomi, please unmute yourself.
NA Ask
Dr Ryan another question about the UK change of policy because I think it's been
watched around the world. Part of the Government's reasoning, they say, is that
if they have an exit wave now in August it's better than having one later in
September so they're gambling on cases going up sharply and then falling back
down pretty sharply.
Could you just explain to me a bit more about
whether you think that's too hopeful or whether there are some good grounds to
believe that that would work?
MR Thanks
for the question. I'm not aware that that's the logic driving our colleagues in
the United Kingdom. I suspect it's not. I would like to verify that that's the
logic but the logic that more people being infected is better is, I think,
logic that has proven its moral emptiness and its epidemiologic stupidity
previously.
00:35:53
TJ Thank
you very much. Catrine Fiancan Bukonga, our colleague from Geneva press corps,
working for France 24. Catrine.
CA Thank
you so much. My question is related to the summer. As Mike and Maria said, with
summer countries are opening up widely to vaccinated people but differences are
made between the people that are vaccinated with WHO-approved COVID-19
vaccines, the ones that are approved by the European Medicines Agency and now
we also see a difference made between the AstraZeneca produced in India or in
other sites and even people vaccinated with injections made in Africa or
Europe.
People vaccinated with Sputnik often are
considered not vaccinated so I would like to have your position on that. Aren't
vaccines that are recognised by WHO and the EMA official vaccines - in quotes?
TJ Thank
you, Catrine.
CA What
is that discrimination between the kind of vaccines or the place you've been
injected with the doses?
00:37:23
TJ Thank
you, Catrine.
MS Thank
you, Catrine. Let me start by saying that the European vaccine certificate is
aiming at facilitating the transit of people who are resident in Europe or are
nationals from different European Union countries.
Then the regulation, the conditional market
approval for vaccines in Europe is done by the European Medicines Agency;
that's one fact. The new [?] resolution is strongly recommending for ending the
Schengen space that countries accept vaccinations that were approved by WHO
through the emergency use listing and that includes the AstraZeneca vaccine
that's being produced in the Serum Institute of India.
Sputnik vaccine is still being assessed by WHO;
it hasn't been emergency use listed although it's authorised, I think, in two
countries in Europe but the WHO is still assessing the dossier and has done
inspections in Russia in the manufacturers so this process is not finalised yet
so this vaccine is yet to be listed by WHO.
00:38:46
Now we are of course in conversations with the
European Union and we are also working with the different member states in
their internal policies they are adopting for entry into the Schengen space.
The recommendation is that they use WHO emergency use listing.
Let me say that this is a new name that we're
using during this pandemic but it's a procedure from the pre-qualification of vaccines
programme which is one programme that WHO has done for many, many years, since
the 1980s and uses very stringent internationally-recognised standards for the
quality of the manufacturing, quality assurance of the vaccine, for the safety
and efficacy of the vaccine.
So this is a very solid process and that's why
we believe it's promising that individual countries in the Schengen space will
approve the entry of people who have been vaccinated with WHO-approved
vaccines. Thank you.
TJ Thank
you, Dr Simao. We have time for one, potentially two questions so let's go to
Bloomberg; Corinne, can you please ask your question?
CO Thank
you. I was just wondering if you can give an update on what the latest is and
any new inquiry into the coronavirus origins. I know a while ago the WHO was
having informal consultations with member states about the next phase so any
idea yet what the next steps might be?
00:40:27
MR Thank
you. No, we continue to consult with our member states quite intensively and
are putting together the framework for moving forward with this whole endeavour
with a view to a short, medium and long-term approach to studying the origins
of this virus but also a broader framework for studying the origins of all
viruses in future.
I think what we are learning in this process is
that we need stronger frameworks to do this work in general and we're working
to both deal with this immediate issue of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 but also
put in place a reliable, transparent, open and collaborative framework for
doing this work now and into the future.
Forgive us as we do this very carefully in
trying to bring all of the best minds together to get ourselves both a solution
for now and for the long term and again thank you all for creating the space in
which we can progress the science and our knowledge in the absence of politics.
00:41:33
TJ Thank
you very much, Dr Ryan. Last question from Maya Plants, Geneva-based
correspondent. Maya.
MA Thank
you very much. My question is regarding the measures that are being taken now
in the UK. What is the opinion of the experts at the WHO regarding this trial
that they're making?
TJ Maya,
I'm not sure we understood your question. Can you just repeat your question,
please?
MA There
are some new measures now in the United Kingdom that are taking place like
lifting restrictions, going for some sort of herd immunity.
TJ Maya,
this question has been answered but Mike will repeat.
MR No,
just again I honestly don't believe that that's the intention of the United
Kingdom. We'll certainly follow up with them. Every country right now is
lifting restrictions in one way or the other. All countries are tying to reach
a balance of measures that allow their societies to open up, allow activities
to return to something resembling normal while trying to maintain an element of
control over the virus while trying to increase vaccination.
00:42:57
Maria's made the point before extremely well; we
have to be very cautious, we have to be very careful, we have to be ready to
step forward but we also have to be ready to step back. We know for example
that the United Kingdom has very high rates and they've achieved great success
in vaccination and part of the dividend for that is supposed to be a more
opening-up of society.
But at this point - and our point has been and
I'm sure it's in the consideration of the excellent scientists and the
excellent professionals who advise and manage the UK public health system, that
they're also very aware and very alert to the threat represented by variants,
especially the delta variant, are going to open up very cautiously and will be
ready to adjust that opening-up according to the epidemiology.
00:43:50
I think that's what we need to do; we need to
manage this by looking at the data, looking at the virus, knowing where the
virus is. If the virus - and we've said this for Europe; Maria laid out a 33%
increase in cases in Europe in a week. Clearly we need a note of caution in how
we do things.
We need to move forward very carefully and with
options to be able to step back if we find that that process results in a
negative consequence or an unintended outcome that's bad for our populations.
What we're saying in particular is that
countries opening up who have very low levels of vaccine coverage in the
presence of variants is a real toxic mixture for your hospitals filling up
again and this is something that must absolutely be avoided.
But again I would say we have many very, very
good colleagues in the United Kingdom and I don't honestly believe that they
would be... They're obviously trying to use vaccination to get to some level of
herd immunity; that's a totally laudable objective.
But the idea of allowing people to be infected
in order to achieve that, I think, is something that the UK has made it very
clear in the past is not part of its core strategy in responding to COVID and
neither is it for any other country I'm aware of at the moment.
TJ Thank
you, Dr Ryan. Maybe, maybe you want to listen to what has been said previously
in this press briefing when there was more being developed on this question.
With this we will have to close this press conference. We will send an audio
file a little bit later and the transcript will be posted tomorrow morning. The
final word to Dr Tedros.
TAG Yes,
thank you. Thank you, Tarik. I would like to thank all the media colleagues who
have joined us today. Thank you for joining us and see you in our upcoming
presser. Thank you.
00:45:51