COVID-19 & Other Global Health Issues Virtual Press conference transcript - 1 June 2022
Overview
00:03:47
FC Good
afternoon. I am pleased to welcome you to the WHO virtual press briefing on
COVID-19 and other global health emergencies. Today, we are Wednesday, 1 June.
Simultaneous interpretation is provided in the six official UN languages,
Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish and Russian, plus Portuguese and
Hindi.
Let me introduce to you our experts who are in
the room, starting with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, Dr
Mike Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove,
Technical Lead on COVID-19. We have also in the room Dr Rosamund Lewis, Technical
Lead for monkeypox, Dr Meg Doherty, Director, Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually
Transmitted Infections. And we have two experts joining online, Dr Soumya
Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist, and Dr Mariângela Simão, Assistant
Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products.
00:05:00
Now, without further ado, I would like to hand
over to Dr Tedros for his opening remarks. Dr Tedros, you have the floor.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Fadéla. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. As you
know, Saturday marked the end of the first in-person World Health Assembly
since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
As usual, WHO’s Member States discussed a huge
range of issues but the most significant decision of the week was the assembly’s
adoption of a landmark resolution to increase assessed contributions, the
membership fees that countries pay, to a target of 50% of our base budget by
the end of the decade, from just 16% now.
This change will give WHO the flexibility and
predictability to plan for long-term programming in countries, and to attract
and retain the people we need to deliver those programmes.
Along with this, WHO is committed to stronger
governance, accountability and efficiency. The assembly also made important
decisions on strengthening WHO’s preparedness for and response to health
emergencies, including making targeted amendments to the International Health
Regulations.
Alongside a new international accord on pandemic
preparedness, a sharpened IHR will be a critical piece of a stronger global
architecture for health emergency preparedness and response. I am also humbled
and honoured that Member States elected me for a second term.
00:07:10
Reported cases and deaths from COVID-19 continue
to decline globally, although this trend should be interpreted with caution
because many countries have reduced the number of tests they do, which in turn
reduces the number of cases they find.
And we do see concerning trends in several
regions. Reported cases and deaths are increasing in the Americas, while deaths
are also increasing in the Western Pacific region and in Africa.
Once again, the pandemic is not over. We
continue to call on all countries to maintain testing and sequencing services,
to give us a clearer picture of where the virus is spreading and how it’s
changing, and we call on all countries to vaccinate all health workers, older
people and other at-risk groups.
Now, for an update on monkeypox. More than 550
confirmed cases have now been reported to WHO from 30 countries that are not
endemic for monkeypox virus. Investigations are ongoing but the sudden
appearance of monkeypox in many countries at the same time suggests there may
have been undetected transmission for some time.
So far, most cases have been reported among men
who have sex with men presenting with symptoms at sexual health clinics. These
communities are working hard to inform their members about the risks of
monkeypox and prevent transmission. But all of us must work hard to fight
stigma, which is not just wrong, it could also prevent infected individuals
from seeking care, making it harder to stop transmission.
00:09:20
WHO is urging affected countries to widen their
surveillance, to look for cases in the broader community. Anyone can be
infected with monkeypox if they have close physical contact with someone else
who is infected.
The situation is evolving and we expect that
more cases will continue to be found. It’s important to remember that,
generally, monkeypox symptoms resolve on their own but it can be severe in some
cases.
WHO continues to receive updates on the status
of ongoing monkeypox outbreaks in the countries in Africa where the virus is
endemic. WHO’s priorities now are, first, to provide accurate information to
those groups most at risk of monkeypox and, second, to prevent further spread
among at-risk groups, third, to protect frontline health workers and, fourth,
to advance our understanding of this disease.
Now, to Ukraine. After 100 days of war,
Ukraine’s health system is under severe pressure. In the face of the
deteriorating health situation, WHO has increased its presence in Ukraine and
in countries hosting displaced people.
Since the Russian Federation’s invasion began,
WHO has delivered over 515 metric tonnes of medical supplies and equipment, and
trained more than 1,300 health workers in trauma surgery, mass casualties,
burns and chemical exposure.
Meanwhile, the number of attacks on healthcare
continues to increase. As of yesterday, WHO has verified 269 attacks on health
in Ukraine, killing 76 people and injuring 59. Healthcare must never be a
target. We continue to call on the Russian Federation to end the war.
00:11:41
The invasion of Ukraine has badly disrupted food
supplies, exacerbating the risk of famine around the world. This is compounded
by the impact of climate change and extreme weather.
The Horn of Africa is now experiencing one of
its worst droughts in recent history. There is a high risk of famine and
malnutrition, severely affecting an estimated 15-20 million people in Kenya,
Somalia, and Ethiopia. Populations in Djibouti, Eritrea, Uganda, South Sudan
and Sudan are also affected.
Tens of thousands of families are being forced
to leave their homes in search of food, water and pasture. Hunger and
under-nutrition greatly increase health risks, especially for pregnant and
breastfeeding women, newborns, small children, older people and those living
with noncommunicable diseases and disabilities.
Mass displacement and a lack of access to safe
drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, means the risk of outbreaks is very
real. This is especially worrying in an already under-immunised population with
little access to health services.
Food is not the only shortage. In Tigray,
Ethiopia, blockades have caused a shortage of fuel that is crippling the health
system. More than six million people remain under siege by Ethiopian and
Eritrean forces after more than 18 months. Although some food is being
delivered, it’s not enough and basic services remain unavailable, and the
region is sealed off from the rest of the world.
00:13:40
The Ayder hospital in Mekelle, the region’s only
referral hospital, is at risk of shutting down because of lack of fuel to run
generators and ambulances. The hospital is running very low on basic supplies
like IV fluids and antibiotics, even as hospital staff are reportedly
collapsing due to hunger.
This is a hospital serving a population of six
million people, which is responsible for performing thousands of surgeries and
deliveries every year. WHO is doing its best to help but the only solution to
this inhumane situation, as in Ukraine, is peace.
Finally, yesterday was World No Tobacco Day. Tobacco
kills over eight million people every year. We’re making clear progress.
Tobacco use continues to decline and 60 countries are on track to achieve the
target of a 30% reduction in tobacco use by 2025.
More than 100 countries have now mandated
graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging, 18 countries have introduced
plain packaging, and another nine are on the way. But tobacco doesn’t just harm
human health, it also hurts the health of our environment.
A new WHO study has found that every year the
tobacco industry costs the world 600 hundred million trees, 84 million tonnes
of CO2 emissions, 200,000 hectares of land, and 22 billion tonnes of water.
The effects are felt mostly in low and
middle-income countries. As our new report highlights, tobacco is poisoning
people and planet. It is time to quit this deadly habit. Fadéla, back to you.
00:16:08
FC Thank
you, Dr Tedros. I will now open the floor to questions from members of the
media. I remind you that you need to raise your hand using the Raise Your Hand
function in order to get in the queue to ask your questions. I will start with
Laurent Sierro, from the Swiss News Agency. Laurent, can you hear me? Laurent?
LS Yes.
Thanks, Fadéla, for taking my question. Can you hear me?
FC Yes.
LS Good.
I’d like to come back to the figure that was just given by Dr Tedros, the
latest figure on Ukraine. Do you have the feeling the resolution that was passed
last week might have any positive impacts on the situation in the field or has
it worsened it? Do you have any indication that there might have been a local
reaction by either the Russian authorities or the Russian troops? Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Laurent.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Laurent. The resolution, too early to say but we will monitor
what its impact will be. And on local reaction, I think it’s the same. The only
thing we know is the debates in the room, but we will monitor both and
understand the situation. Thank you.
00:17:55
FC Thank
you. Next question is for Simon Ateba, Today News Africa. Simon, can you hear
me?
SA Yes.
Thank you, Fadéla, for taking my question. This is Simon Ateba, with Today News
Africa in Washington. Congratulations to Dr Tedros on your second term of five
years. You and your health team and communications team have worked really hard
in the past three years, so congratulations.
Now, my question. The US Diplomatic Mission to
Nigeria is furious over increasing calls to the WHO to investigate false claims
that US-controlled labs in Nigeria are spreading monkeypox disease across
Africa and the world. In a statement, the US Consulate in Lagos said that those
claims are false but that it had to issue a statement to fight fake news.
I was just wondering if the WHO can again talk a
little bit more about what it is doing to fight fake news when it comes to
COVID, monkeypox and vaccination. Do you still have a division within the WHO
focused mainly on fighting fake news?
I know that in 2020 the WHO partnered with
social media companies such as TRIBE, Facebook, Twitter, Google, but what it
ended up doing was to fight publications such as Today News Africa and elevated
New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, claiming that those were the
only publications on Earth that were telling the truth about COVID-19. So much
hidden racism in the world. May God help us. Thank you.
00:19:37
FC Thank
you, Simon. I would like to give the floor to Gabby Stern, who is the Director
of Communications.
GS Hi,
Simon. Thanks for your question. Yes, WHO remains laser focused on fighting misinformation
and disinformation and we have multiple groups and teams across the world in
countries and in regions and here, at headquarters, who are doing so, including
Dr Sylvie Briand’s group, which works on infodemiology, including wonderful
colleagues in my department who work with social media companies, colleagues in
the Digital Health Innovation Group who also work with tech companies.
We’re all doing basically two things. One is
working with them, because they have vast platforms and channels and audiences,
to get accurate, authoritative information to people through their channels and
platforms.
But we’re also continuing to ask, push and urge
these companies to do a better job of filtering out mis and disinformation
across their various apps and channels, platforms and so on. So, yes, this is a
priority for us and across the UN as well. Our colleagues at UN Headquarters
have efforts as well. So, bottom line, yes, major priority. Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Gabby. Dr Van Kerkhove.
MK I
just want to supplement what Gabby has said and to reiterate that this is a
major focus of ours and a major concern of ours because misinformation kills.
Just as these viruses kill, misinformation kills as well.
00:21:30
So, as Gabby explained, and as we’ve been
explaining throughout this whole pandemic, we target this on multiple different
levels, whether it’s through social media, whether it’s through the different
companies, whether it’s through our EPI-WIN platform, whether it is through
religious leaders or religious communities, youth leaders, through our risk
communication materials, through our myth-busting materials.
This is a constant challenge for us and it
remains a constant challenge, not only for COVID-19, across the entire spectrum
of the interventions and the response that we have. It’s not only
misinformation about vaccines, it’s misinformation, it’s the attacks on science
that undermines the effectiveness of our countermeasures. It undermines the
response.
We see this happening with monkeypox. We will
see this happening with the next one. So, for us, we try to address this on
multiple channels. You, in the media, provide an incredibly important role for
this as well, to get accurate, reliable information out there.
But, I also want to say that we listen as well.
It’s not just about us talking to communities. It is about listening back and
understanding where some of the information comes from. Here, I’m talking about
misinformation or maybe a lack of understanding about particular aspects.
We have an entire global community that is
interested in these aspects right now and we, as an organisation, have a responsibility
to get out accurate information, to say what we know, to say what we don’t know
and to say what we’re doing to find out.
00:22:57
So, we will continue to do this. As you know, we
sit up here every week and have multiple channels through which we get this
information out, through our Science in 5, through our social media platforms,
but also reaching communities through our country offices, through our partners
and listening in communities.
Every single person out there has a
responsibility to pass on good information. Everyone out there has a
responsibility to ensure that they try to find, as best they can, accurate
information to make life-changing and life-saving decisions, but this remains a
critical focus for us.
MR If
I could just speak very briefly to the specific misinformation and
disinformation. We’ve been tracking monkeypox right the way through the
eradication of smallpox, and monkeypox surveillance was continued in the
aftermath of smallpox eradication because of the concerns that it was a similar
disease, though not quite as severe in humans, not established in humans.
But there was also a concern with waning
immunity from vaccination, that there always was chance that this disease could
continue to be endemic in the endemic areas or become epidemic. We’ve seen, now,
this outbreak. So, this has been constant and Rosamund Lewis, who sits here
beside me, has been leading on that for many, many, many years.
00:24:15
With particular reference to the US, I think in
this case the United States of America deserves huge credit for having
maintained and sustained its public health capacities, lab capacities,
supporting countries when most other countries did not regard this as a threat.
I think it’s churlish that responsible
governments who have continued to invest in surveillance of a disease now that
we’re facing and we have a lot of uncertainties and a lot of things we need to
understand. Again, the US government, its scientists across many different
agencies deserve huge credit for having sustained their scientific interest in
this disease because much of the knowledge we have has come from US investments
in understanding this disease, and to associate this with some form of
spreading of disease or bioterrorism is quite frankly the worst kind of
disinformation.
It is the worst kind of disinformation. So, I’d
just like to commend our colleagues in the United States for the work they’ve
continued to do, which is now a great benefit to everyone as we try to
understand this disease at an even deeper level.
FC Sorry,
I have a mic problem. Thank you. I would like to give the floor to Dr
Swaminathan, who had something to add. Dr Swaminathan, you have the floor.
SS Thank
you, Fadéla. I just wanted to add. I don’t know if you’re getting an echo. I
wanted to add to what Gabby was saying, particularly about our work with the
tech companies and this has really advanced in the last two years since the
COVID pandemic began.
00:26:12
We work with a number of tech companies and
partners, especially the ones who have social media platforms, because we
recognise that a number of people get their information from social media. And
the way that we have worked with them is for them to highlight some of what
they see as misinformation or disinformation but also to flag to us some of the
questions that people are asking on these social media platforms, and sometimes
these questions are being answered by people who are giving the wrong
information.
Therefore, our effort is two-pronged. One is to
make sure that there’s much more credible information out there. So, it’s the
responsibility of agencies like WHO but also public health agencies and
scientists and public health officials to actually be proactive in providing
more of the right information that’s based on data and science.
So, we are now setting up something that we call
a claims platform that will have a number of engagements with Meta, that’s
Facebook, with Instagram, with Twitter, with YouTube, and many social media
platforms who will flag to us the kind of claims or the kind of questions that
they are seeing and we will then respond through the scientists that we have
access to, both within WHO but perhaps from outside WHO, and provide the best
possible evidence at that that point of time, given that in many situations the
evidence is evolving.
00:27:47
That’s, again, something that we need to make
the public understand that just because from week-to-week the information that
we give changes, it only means that as we learn more we can provide more
details. And we always have to recognise that when you’re dealing with
something new or even something that’s not new but maybe presenting in a new
way or in a new environment, then we have to do the data collection and the
research before we can make definitive statements.
So, we’re doing that. We’re also working on
developing a platform that will be more Member State-facing. It will be
engaging with countries so that governments can also monitor what their
citizens are talking about. What are the topics that are on the top of mind in
conversations that people are having, the questions that people have.
Again, this will help both to address the gaps
in knowledge but also to flag some disinformation that maybe circulating that
needs to be addressed very proactively by the public health agencies of that
country. Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Dr Swaminathan. I would like now to invite Donato Mancini, from Financial
Times, to ask the next question. Donato, you have the floor.
DM Hi.
I hope you can hear me. On monkeypox, given that it’s likely it has been
spreading undetected for a while, are we too far gone in this outbreak to
contain it and eradicate it where it does not normally circulate? Have any
deaths been reported among the cases reported to you so far? And what is the
fatality rate projected and obviously seen, with the cases reported to you so
far? Thank you.
00:29:44
FC Thank
you. Dr Lewis?
RL Thank
you very much. The fact that this virus has appeared in Europe in a large
number of cases, an increasing number of cases, is clearly cause for some
concern and it does suggest that there may have been undetected transmission
for a while.
What we don’t know is how long that may have
been. We don’t know if it is weeks, months or possibly a couple of years. It
really is something that needs to be ascertained through deeper investigation
of the initial cases that were reported and outbreak investigation of the
clusters from which these cases arose. So, we don’t really know whether it is
too late to contain.
What WHO and all Member States are certainly
trying to do is to prevent onward spread. So, it’s really important that we
collectively all work together to prevent onward spread through contact
tracing, outbreak investigation, isolation for people who have diagnosis of
monkeypox and symptoms. It’s not too late to do that kind of really basic
public health work. It’s really important that we continue to do that.
There have been no deaths reported in the
multi-country outbreak that began in May, however we do know that WHO has been
monitoring this disease called monkeypox in the African setting for 50 years
now and there have been deaths every year.
00:31:19
The disease is also emerging in the African
setting. The number of cases being reported from Democratic Republic of the
Congo, for example, have been increasing year-on-year. There are a few theories
as to why that might be the case. Again, we don’t have all the answers.
One of the theories, of course, is that
vaccination against smallpox was stopped in 1980 when smallpox was eradicated
worldwide and so the collective immunity in the human population since that
time is not what it was at the time of smallpox eradication.
Collectively, anyone under that age of 40 or 50,
depending which country you were born in or where you might have received your
vaccine against smallpox would not now have that protection from that
particular vaccine. This virus is from the same family. Monkeypox is related to
smallpox in the sense that the viruses are from the same family.
We are
continuing to monitor the situation. There have been deaths in Africa over all
these years. There have been almost 70 or 70 deaths reported so far in 2022
from five African countries. So, this is not a disease that is unfamiliar but
certainly the new context and how it is spreading is something new and we are
monitoring and working with countries, both in the African setting as well as
Member States newly affected, to see how to prevent onward spread, to see how
to work with the authorities around making countermeasures available.
FC Dr
Ryan?
00:32:55
MR Just
to add to Rosamund’s excellent point. If we look at things like Lassa fever,
we’ve seen an upward trend in Lassa fever, again a disease of mammalian origin
in Africa. We see the upward trend in Ebola outbreaks. You can count them now almost
on a three-monthly basis. We used to have three-five years between Ebola
outbreaks at least. Now, it’s lucky if we have three-five months.
There is definitely ecological pressure in the
system. Animals are changing their behaviour. Humans are changing their
behaviour. The DG spoke earlier about climate stress, drought stress. That is
not just changing human behaviour, it’s changing animal behaviour. It’s
changing the range of animals. It’s changing food-seeking behaviour and many
other things.
What we’re dealing with is a lot ecologic
fragility. We’re dealing with the animal/human interface being quite unstable
and the number of times that these diseases cross into humans increasing. Then,
our ability or, unfortunately, that ability to amplify that disease and move it
on within our communities increasing.
Both disease emergence and disease amplification
factors have increased and therefore it’s not just in monkeypox. It is in other
diseases. These are generally diseases of small mammals. We’ve seen similar
with aviation influenza and again that strain at that animal/human interface
between us and birds, effectively.
00:34:15
I think what we’re generally seeing here is this
hyper endomicity, as in endemic diseases at small levels becoming more persistent,
more frequent and generating more and more outbreaks. I think that that’s a
lesson, not just for monkeypox. It comes back to our lack of investment in that
animal/human interface, particularly in countries that don’t have the systems
in place to do the diagnosis and do the interventions.
There are thousands and thousands of cases of
monkeypox every year in Africa and there are deaths every year. Our concern now
is real. We have a concern about this disease spreading in Europe but I
certainly didn’t hear that same level of concern over the last five or ten
years.
So, I think this is a lesson. These diseases
will continue to emerge. They will continue to pressure. They will continue to
cross the species barrier. The question is are we in a position to collectively
respond? Are we in a position to share resources in order to stop onward transmission
of these diseases within human communities?
MK I
just wanted to comment on the mortality part of your question related to this
and reinforce the messages that Rosamund talked about, about preventing onward
transmission. There’s a lot that we could right now with regards to monkeypox
in terms of better understanding this virus, better understanding its
transmission patterns, better advancing our understanding on diagnostics,
therapeutics and vaccines.
00:35:34
As Mike has just said and as Rosamund has said,
this virus has been circulating for decades and there has not been the
investment, there has not been the intention. Right now there is, and it’s a
sad reality of the world that we live that we now have attention to this.
We will use this right now to advance our
understanding and the investment and the financing and the attention that it
deserves. But with regards to mortality, in regards to crude case fatality
ratio that you see in some of the estimates in our fact sheets, this is in fact
quite crude because surveillance is lacking across many countries. There hasn’t
been enough investment in that, as well.
This is likely to be an upper bound of that case
fatality ratio but we don’t know exactly what the mortality is. With regards to
the non-endemic countries, we haven’t had any deaths reported to date but what
we are seeing in some countries, as Rosamund said and as the DG has said, more
than 550 confirmed cases across 30 countries.
We are asking countries to increase their
surveillance, to look for unexplained rash, not only in MSM communities but
also people presenting to emergency departments and dermatology clinics and
emergency departments, to see what the extent of the circulation is. While we
have not seen deaths reported yet, we have not also seen monkeypox circulate in
vulnerable populations in the non-endemic countries, so pregnant women, for
example, or children.
00:37:01
What we want to ensure is that we take steps to
prevent onward transmission so that we don’t see this virus entrenched in
communities across Europe, across the Americas, across the Western Pacific,
across the Eastern Mediterranean region because if we do that, then we will see
this virus enter into vulnerable populations and that may change our
perception, our understanding, what we are seeing in terms of severity.
So, there’s a lot that we can do right now. There’s
a lot that we can do with public health measures by increasing awareness,
making sure people understand what monkeypox is, what it isn’t, in a
non-stigmatising way. What are the facts? What can we say about this? How can
we better prepare ourselves to detect? How can we ensure that people who are
infected with monkeypox know how they can get the right clinical care and how
they can prevent the onward spread.
We’re not telling people to stop living their
lives. We just want to make sure that they have information, so that they know
what they need to do to keep themselves safe and to prevent onward
transmission. There’s a lot we could do with regards to contact tracing, with
supported isolation and we will continue to work on that throughout the course
of this, but we also have to have as much attention, if not more, in countries
where this virus is endemic and we will be working very hard to advance this.
Tomorrow and Thursday we have an R&D meeting
for monkeypox, which is being organised. You can register for this and anyone
can attend, but this is also an opportunity for us to advance our understanding
in terms of what research needs to be done to understand why we’re seeing
re-emergence. What are we doing to develop further antivirals, further
therapeutics, further vaccines? So, please join that help us advance this
disease.
00:38:49
FC Thank
you. We shared with the global media list, the details about this webinar to
happen tomorrow and after tomorrow. Thank you. Now, I would like to give the
floor to Nina Larson, from Agence France-Press. Nina, you have the floor.
NL Thank
you for taking my question. Just a follow-up on that. I was wondering if you
are worried that monkeypox could develop into a new pandemic, if that’s
something that you’re looking at.
On the misinformation part that we were
discussing earlier, there’s been a lot of misinformation, disinformation around
the pandemic preparedness accord that is up for negotiation. Are you worried
that could impact the negotiations, themselves? If you could just say something
about that and what you expect from next week’s talks. Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Nina. Dr Lewis will take the first part of your question.
RL Thanks
very much. What we are seeing is an outbreak. We’re seeing cases in countries
that have not had them before, in many countries that have not had them before.
This is an outbreak. We have 500 cases so far, more than 500 cases. We do
expect to see more because people who have been infected in the last few weeks
may have continued to transmit during the period of time when they didn’t know
what they had, when they had not had an opportunity to have a diagnosis, when
this spread had not been detected yet.
00:40:25
It’s critically important for countries to
support the health services to really rapidly share information with those that
need to have it and to stop the onward transmission from the cases. Right now,
this is an outbreak and outbreaks can be stopped. So, that’s our effort right
now, is to stop forward transmission of this outbreak and also to support the
countries in Africa that live with disease day in and day out.
FC Thank
you, Dr Lewis. Nina, let me come back to you with an answer for your second
question. Now, I would like to give the floor to Daniel Payne, from Politico.
Daniel, can you hear me?
DP Yes.
Thank you so much for taking my question and for holding this briefing. On
Friday there was a discussion about getting countries to agree to share what
they have to deal with monkeypox, whether that’s smallpox vaccinations,
monkeypox vaccinations and other supplies.
So, I’m just wondering what the state of play is
there and particularly if the smallpox emergency stockpile is going to be used
or those agreements with Member States have been discussed and if any countries
have already committed to share things with that stockpile. Thank you.
FC Thank
you. Dr Lewis?
00:41:55
RL Let’s
talk a little about the vaccine reserves that WHO has and that some countries
do also have. This vaccine reserve was established in 1980 at the time of the
eradication of smallpox. It was done at the request of the World Health
Assembly.
The reserves consist of vaccine that was used at
that time. This is a vaccine that remains extremely stable under cold
conditions, under frozen conditions. A number of countries have maintained
their reserves because the world has deemed it desirable to maintain a certain
level of preparedness in the event of re-emergence of smallpox, which could be
through a natural occurrence, through an accident or through a deliberate event.
So, countries are prepared and WHO has participated in that preparedness.
Having said that, most of the vaccines in these
reserves are, in fact, what we call first generation vaccines, so they are from
the eradication era. They don’t, at the present time, meet the standards that
we have today and, as Dr Ryan alluded to, there have been decades of research
in preparing, developing new vaccines and treatments for smallpox essentially.
But, as we said, monkeypox is a related virus and a related medical condition.
Now, the question is coming up, are these
products available? Are these new vaccines and treatments available? And the
answer is while they have been, to some extent, approved for smallpox and in a
couple of cases also approved by stringent regulatory authorities, by licensing
bodies for monkeypox, however these remain new products and they remain in very
limited supply. So, WHO is working with countries and with the industry,
commercial sector to see what we can do going forward to strength both access
to these products.
00:43:45
Having said that, again this is a situation that
WHO is not recommending mass vaccination. There is no need for mass
vaccination. We’re talking about an outbreak. At the moment, what is described
is an outbreak in a specific community which does engage in travel and contact,
physical contact where transmission can occur, where spread can occur.
So, the important thing is reaching those
communities with the right information on how to protect themselves and how to
protect each other and how to prevent onward spread of the condition that they
may have just recently discovered or learned that they have.
Right now, our advisory group on immunisation
and vaccines for monkeypox has been discussing on a couple of occasions and reviewing
interim guidance that will come out shortly, and that interim guidance really
focuses on very targeted vaccination around folks who need it. That is contacts
of persons who have monkeypox, and very limited, where possible, preventive
measures for health workers, for example.
As Maria said, our intention is to also protect
health workers, so health workers who may be coming into contact with cases of
monkeypox in selected clinical settings such as emergency rooms, primary
healthcare, sexual health services, dermatology clinics and so on. They may
need access to these products as they become available, as they come online. I
just need to repeat that at the moment that supply is limited and we are
working with our Member States and industry to enhance production and supply.
Thank you.
00:45:25
FC Thank
you, Dr Lewis. Now, I would like to invite Elaine Fletcher, from Health Policy
Watch, to ask the next question. Elaine, you have the floor.
EF Hi.
Thank you very much for taking my question. In reflection on Dr Ryan’s very
eloquent remarks about ecosystem pressures that may be driving the circulation
of this disease, is there any plan by WHO to do a report, perhaps earlier
rather than later, on the origins, the ecosystem and zoonotic origins of
monkeypox, so that we could put some of the misconceptions to rest and also
call clear attention to the drivers of this pandemic up-source?
Secondly, in relation to the pandemic treaty or
convention or other international instrument that we’re talking about, I got an
email today from a group, Wildlife Conservation Society, claiming that it’s
impossible to interact with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Board or the WHO
because they are not recognised in official relations with WHO, so they don’t
have the kind of observer status that health groups have.
I’m just wondering whether this is a moment when
perhaps that observer status needs to be expanded to conservation groups in
order to really get to these One Health questions with people that have more
knowledge of them than the traditional health organisations who are going to
deal with the treatments but not the actual divers. Thank you for taking my
question.
00:47:00
FC Dr
Ryan?
MR Rosamund
may wish to add but there has been and continues to be research in the field
around monkeypox but that research has not been enough. It has been underfunded.
The countries have not been resourced in order to do that, and we need to
invest more, certainly understanding that and other diseases in that context. Certainly,
there is going to be a research and development blueprint meeting. Is it this
week or next, Rosamund?
RL Tomorrow.
MR This
week, which will bring together researchers, not just around the issue of
vaccines or the issue of the outbreak, as we see it now in Europe, but
specifically also around the upstream parts of this and the origins. But, in
this case, we know that the disease is endemic in a number of countries.
We have knowledge of how that disease transmits
to humans but the issue is finding interventions that work at the community
level. How are we going to break that animal/human species barrier in a way
that protects humans from the disease and we just better need to understand the
ecology there? So, investing in that is very important.
In terms of the NGOs and others who need to
contribute on the international treaty, I think the INB and WHO have opened
important dialogues outside. In fact, I think there is an open dialogue with
WHO coming up again, the second one. All organisations, down to the individual
citizen, are absolutely encouraged to provide submissions to the INB around
what they think should be in the treaty, what they think shouldn’t be in the
treaty.
00:48:42
This is one of the most open processes that WHO
has ever had and I think any advice we have from NGOs and others, and Tedros
has said this before, any advice we can have from civil society on how better
to engage, how to bring more people into this.
This is a problem like climate change that
affects every citizen on the planet and it’s really, really important that the
Member States, as they go through the process or prioritising what should be in
this treaty and negotiating this treaty, that they have that dialogue, they
have that input, and they have that constant conversation with society, with
NGOs and with others. Dr Tedros has been very clear on that in his discussions
with the Member States and in his discussions with the Intergovernmental
Negotiating Body.
You did mention earlier the issue of
misinformation around the accord. I think this is another important issue to
clarify. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body is the body that will take
forward the discussions and the agreements around the accord. This is not the
WHO Secretariat in Geneva. This is the 194 Member States of WHO, which will
include that dialogue with civil society and beyond.
00:49:49
This is not about stealing sovereignty from
countries. This is about counties coming together to solve problems together.
We’ve seen the climate change, we see with pandemics, there no national
solutions to these. We need strong national systems and we need strong national
commitments on climate change. We need strong national commitments on
preparedness.
But that’s not enough. We need to be able to
come together at a global level and make the necessary commitments to do the
preparedness, to do the prevention to get ourselves ready and to respond
effectively in the next pandemic. That requires a degree of international
agreement on how we will behave before and during the next pandemic.
That is the attempt here and it is being led by
our Member States, it’s being led by the countries, by national entities and
there is no question of any loss of sovereignty or any play by global powers to
take over the world. This is not what this is about.
This is about finding the necessary level of
agreement to protect all of our communities in the future. We’ve seen the
shortcomings, we’ve seen the difficulties we’ve faced in this pandemic. We may
face a more severe pandemic in future and we need to be a hell of a lot better
prepared than we are now.
That’s going to require countries to work
together. We need to establish the rules of that game. We need to establish the
playbook for how we’re going to prepare together and how we’re going to respond
together. That is not about sovereignty. That’s about responsibility. Thank
you.
00:51:16
FC Thank
you, Dr Ryan. I will give the floor to Shoko Koyama, from NHK, and it will be
the last question for today. You have the floor.
SK Thank
you, Fadéla.
FC Shoko?
SK Yes.
Can you hear me?
FC Very
well. Go ahead, please.
SK Thank
you. Regarding the COVID situation in the DPRK, I wonder if the WHO hasn’t yet
received any report or updates from the authorities. I’m asking because,
according to your dashboard, it is still zero confirmed cases. How does the WHO
plan to support the citizens there? Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Shoko. Dr Van Kerkhove will answer this question.
MK I
will start. What I can say is that the total number of fevered persons, people
suspected with COVID-19 is over 3.7 million reported from DPRK. We continue to
offer support through our offices on a variety of different ways in which we
can help, in terms of diagnostics, in terms of vaccines, in terms of
treatments, in terms of PPE and other medical supplies that are necessary.
There are many recoveries that have been reported but there’s limited
information that we have from the country currently.
00:52:44
MR Can
I just add that we’re working off the same information that most of you are out
there. This is not any privileged information. We have real issues in getting
access to raw data and to the actual situation on the ground. We are
triangulating, like everybody else.
We have offered assistance on multiple
occasions. We have offered vaccines on three separate occasions. We continue to
offer vaccines. We continue to offer supplies. We are working with neighbouring
countries like China and the Republic of Korea. We see a very positive attitude
towards trying to deal with this.
This is a collective problem. We do not wish to
see intense transmission of this disease in a mainly susceptible population, in
a health system that is already weakened. This is not good for the people of DPRK.
This is not good for the region. This is not good for the world.
So, we really would appeal for a more open
approach so we can come to the assistance of DPRK because, right now, we are
not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the
ground. We assume that situation is getting worse, not better, but again it is
very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don’t
have access to the necessary data.
FC Thank
you. We are coming to an end of this press conference. I would like to hand
over to Dr Tedros for any final comments. Over to you, Dr Tedros.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Fadéla. Thank you to all members of the press for joining us
today and see you next time. Bye-bye.