COVID-19 Virtual Press conference transcript - 2 July 2021
Overview
00:01:18
TJ Hello to everyone listening to us on Zoom or on the WHO social media channels. Welcome to the regular COVID-19 press conference today, July 2nd. My name is Tarik Jasarevic and I will be helping with moderating the question-and-answer session. Today we will have a special focus on the results of small island developing states summit for health that took place earlier this week. Dr Tedros will introduce our very special guest today in a minute.
I will just ask journalists to be brief in their questions and ask only one question in any of the six UN languages or Portuguese and our interpreters will help with that. I will now give the floor to Dr Tedros. We have a number of WHO experts here in the room. I will just mention some. Some of them are online; some of them are coming.
As usual we have Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead. Our Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, is also with us; Mariangela Simao, our Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products. We have Ann Lindstrand on the phone and she is Unit Head for Essential Programme on Immunisation. We also have Dr Nedret Emiroglu, who is a Director here in the role of the independent panel.
00:02:54
We have also some other people who may be asked to help us with answering questions. With this I give the floor to Dr Tedros for his opening remarks.
TAG Thank you. Thank you, Tarik. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. This week WHO hosted a two-day summit with heads of state, heads of government, ministers and civil society leaders from small island developing states, SIDS, which focused on building resilient health systems in the face of multiple threats.
Climate crisis, the severe impact of the crisis on lives and livelihoods, vaccine inequity and the long burden of non-communicable diseases were discussed, and concrete outcomes developed on how, together, we can tackle them.
His Excellency, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, addressed the summit and I'm pleased and honoured he has joined us again today to give his perspective on the urgent issues at hand. Your Excellency, Prime Minister, you have the floor.
00:04:17
GB Thank you very much, Dr Tedros. Director-General, members of the media, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I welcome this opportunity to brief the members of the press on the SIDS summit outcome statement. First of all, let me thank everyone who participated in the first ever WHO SIDS summit and for their contribution to the development of this excellent and pragmatic outcome which called for a healthy and resilient future.
Antigua and Barbuda, as the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, takes this opportunity to fully endorse the summit's outcome statement. The outcome statement captures the vulnerabilities of small island developing states, which are susceptible to the threats of economic shocks, climate change and the burden of non-communicable diseases, which have undermined the health and well-being of our citizens and residents.
While mindful of our vulnerability and limited capacity the SIDS have been confronting the challenges with limited resources, but inadequate resources are now further strained by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SIDS' vulnerabilities have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic to the extent that achieving the sustainable development goals and the aspirations of the Samoa Pathway will require a multidimensional approach including the support of the international community.
The sustainable development goals' overarching principle is to leave no-one behind and SIDS are determined to achieve that goal. This all requires really global collaboration and co-operation of the international community to develop more refined and bespoke development pathways for SIDS to effectively confront the challenges they are faced with.
The health and well-being of SIDS must be seen as a global human right, justifiable on moral grounds and on common humanity. This should be universally acceptable within the UN system and other development partners.
This outcome statement requires action by all and hinges on urgent intervention in addressing the unique vulnerability of SIDS and the inequalities that stand as obstacles to their development.
00:07:07
It also firmly establishes health at the heart of climate action and a need to develop climate-resilient health systems. However health and economic resilience cannot be achieved by SIDS without the assistance of the international community and new inclusive funding mechanisms for sustainable financing should be developed to include debt-for-climate swaps and obligatory compensatory financial instruments for loss and damage as a result of damage from climate change disasters and certainly funding for adaptation and mitigation.
Eligibility for financing should be inclusive and based on vulnerability. To this end the outcome statement reiterates the call for the development of the multidimensional vulnerability index to replace the flawed per capita income criteria.
The outcome document also calls for ambitious measures to combat climate change and to protect the natural environment. However I wish to add that profligate users of fossil fuels who have contributed to global warming and pollution, whose adverse climate actions have resulted in loss and damages in SIDS, should be legally obligated to make financial reparations for the damages, not for us as vulnerable SIDS to wait for hand-outs and unfulfilled promises from these states.
00:08:48
This compensation should include debt write-offs for SIDS that have had to borrow repeatedly to rebuild from climate damage, resulting in unsustainable debt burdens. The outcome document addresses the burdens of malnutrition and [unclear] nutrition, necessitating interventions to ensure food security and adequate nutrition.
It recommends pooled procurement among SIDS, especially for medicines and medical supplies to reduce costs. In fact pooled procurement has been successfully practised in the OECS Caribbean sub-region for decades.
It also acknowledges the need to acquire new technologies including access to medical technologies and the need for access to good-quality education and life-long learning.
While we all can agree that we're small our dreams and goals extend beyond our borders. SIDS have led many global initiatives that oftentimes serve as the anchor to many international agreements. We place [inaudible] on a global stage. We led the charge for 1.5 to stay alive as climate change disproportionately affects SIDS more than any other.
00:10:11
Development challenges like pandemics and diseases, climate change and disasters, economic instability and a lack of global economic opportunities may compound the vulnerability of SIDS and limit our overall development.
Despite these challenges our countries are innovators and we have had successes in many areas. Antigua and Barbuda and other SIDS were among the first to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Right here in the Caribbean we have Cuba as a small state that continues as a leader in healthcare and medicines and many other SIDS are promoting the concept of universal healthcare with significant success despite their fiscal constraints.
While we can list the key accomplishments the world sometimes turns its back on us and this is happening perhaps a little bit too often and COVID-19, the pandemic is a typical example as to how the international community has failed to assist SIDS in equal [?] ways in order to deal with this global pandemic.
Despite the good efforts of the COVAX facility developed partners are not doing enough. With the economic [unclear] of the pandemic SIDS have limited access to vaccines. We still have a problem globally of vaccine nationalisation and that's compounded by the fact that travel and trade have been curtailed, thereby inflicting great wounds on our economies.
00:11:56
So we now run the risk of disintegrating into what I consider to be economic sclerosis, eroding decades of hard-won gains and that should not be allowed to happen. Our tourism industry is all but at a standstill. Our economies are shattered and there's much anxiety among SIDS of the possibility of a protracted pandemic, which means that we all have to move in lock-step with each other in global solidarity in order to effectively defeat this pandemic.
It is therefore our hope that the WHO can begin the process of the pandemic [unclear] that is tailored [inaudible] achieve the objectives of [unclear]. We must all [unclear] bold action, recognising the interconnectedness of the human health of SIDS and sustainable development.
This requires tackling the social determinants of healthy SIDS while promoting economic resilience for countries. I close by thanking Dr Tedros for his exemplary global leadership during this most challenging period and I certainly thank him for his commitment and advocacy on behalf of SIDS.
00:13:19
Finally, we welcome the recommendation to establish the SIDS leaders' group on health for high-level advocacy and I take this opportunity to charge everyone to use this summit outcome statement as a rallying call in addressing the health challenges of SIDS. I thank you very much, Mr Chairman.
TAG Thank you. Thank you so much, Prime Minister. Thank you for your leadership. I couldn't agree more with you about the importance of looking at the multidimensional threats and working together to solve them.
On an almost day-to-day basis we're now seeing the impact of the climate crisis; record-breaking, scorching heat-waves, catastrophic storms and changing weather patterns are impacting food systems, disease dispersion and societies at large.
The time for lofty words is over. There needs to be concerted action backed by financial resources to mitigate the consequences of climate change while we work to keep temperatures down and scale green innovations.
00:14:41
In terms of the small islands their very existence is at risk. As the Prime Minister noted, the same is true for vaccine equity in many respects. Many small island developing states have succeeded in preventing widespread transmission of COVID-19 in their communities.
But the pandemic has hit you hard in other ways such as declining revenues from tourism, which is affecting your economies significantly, compounded by more transmissible variants like delta, which is quickly becoming the dominant strain in many countries. We're in a very dangerous period of this pandemic.
In those countries with low vaccination coverage terrible scenes of hospitals overflowing are again becoming the norm but no country on Earth is out of the woods yet. The delta variant is dangerous and is continuing to evolve and mutate, which requires constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response.
00:15:54
Delta has been detected in at least 98 countries and is spreading quickly in countries with low and high vaccination coverage. There are essentially two ways for countries to push back against new surges. Public health and social measures like strong surveillance, strategic testing, early case detection, isolation and clinical care remain critical as well as masking, physical distance, avoiding crowded places and keeping indoor areas well-ventilated are the basis for the response.
Second, the world must equitably share protective gear, oxygen, tests, treatments and vaccines. I have urged leaders across the world to work together to ensure that by this time next year 70% of all people in every country are vaccinated. This is the best way to slow the pandemic, save lives, drive a truly global economic recovery and along the way prevent further dangerous variants from getting the upper hand.
By the end of this September we're calling on leaders to vaccinate at least 10% of people in all countries. This would protect health workers and those at most risk, effectively ending the acute stage of the pandemic and saving a lot of lives.
00:17:32
It's a challenge but we know it's possible because already three billion vaccines have been distributed. It is within the collective power of a few countries to step up and ensure that vaccines are shared, manufacturing is increased and that the funds are in place to purchase the tools needed.
There is now some sharing of vaccines happening but it's still only a trickle, which is being outpaced by variants. In those countries whose hospitals are filling up they need vaccines and other health tools right now.
New manufacturing hubs including for mRNA vaccines are being developed but this could be accelerated by companies openly sharing technology and know-how. In particular I urge those companies like BioNTech, Pfizer and Moderna to share their know-how so that we can speed up the development of new production.
The sooner we start building more vaccine hubs and upping global vaccine capacity the sooner we can diminish deadly surges. This week the leaders of the IMF, World Bank, WTO and WHO met to look at practical ways to track, co-ordinate and advance the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to low and middle-income countries.
00:19:11
Collectively we also made several asks to the G20 to accelerate global efforts to reach our vaccine targets. Finally some countries, regions have launched so-called vaccine certificates and I want to make it very clear that it's important that these do not lead to discrimination against those people in countries that have either a lack of vaccines or certain type of vaccine.
As you know, WHO issues emergency use listings for vaccines based on a stringent assessment of safety and efficacy and we expect all countries to recognise and accept those vaccines that WHO has approved.
Again, I would like to thank His Excellency, Prime Minister Browne, for joining us today and now I will pass back to Tarik. Tarik.
TJ Thank you very much, Dr Tedros; thank you very much, Your Excellency, Prime Minister Gaston Browne. I understand the Prime Minister will stay with us for some minutes so hopefully we will hear from him when we come to questions from journalists.
We already have some journalists raising their hands so we will start immediately with Laurent Sierro of Swiss news. Laurent.
00:20:46
LA Yes, thank you, Tarik, for taking my question. A recent study by the University of Oxford a few days ago shows that a period of up to 45 weeks between two doses of AstraZeneca might improve the efficiency of that vaccine. As you're facing shortages in the framework of COVAX are you going to take that into consideration to adapt the dispatch of doses in the next months in the different countries? Thank you.
SS Thanks for that question. I can start and maybe Joachim is online and can add details. Yes, indeed we saw that report showing that up to ten months of a gap between the first and the second dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine still provided very good immunogenicity after the second dose and had resulted in high levels of neutralising antibodies.
It is very reassuring, I think, for people and for countries where there may be a delay in obtaining the second dose. We know there are supply constraints and many countries that received the first dose and have given the first dose to people do not have supplies for the second dose.
00:22:07
COVAX is trying to address that but in the meantime it's reassuring that a longer gap beyond the eight to 12 weeks that is currently recommended by WHO; we're not going to pay a penalty for that; people will still mount a good immune response.
But having said that, we also know that two doses of the vaccine, in this case the ChadOx vaccine, is what gives full protection against disease and so we do want people to get that second dose within the recommended interval of time so that they're fully protected within that period.
So it's a trade-off between increasing the coverage for larger numbers of people with the first dose and providing full protection to people which they get after the second dose and particularly with the delta variant we do want that full protection.
So as supplies increase there should be no problems really in being able to give everyone their second dose in time but studies like this help us to learn more about the immune response to vaccines and immunology and also on the duration of protection that we get from vaccines so it's very welcome and we would like to see more studies like this on other vaccines that are being used around the world. Thank you. See if Dr Hombach wants to add anything.
00:23:36
TJ Thank you very much, Dr Swaminathan. Online we have with us Dr Joachim Hombach, who is Secretary to the SAGE. Joachim, could you please unmute yourself and add if you wish?
JH Yes, thanks very much. I don't have much to add but really also to underline again, this is great news which adds flexibility to a schedule if it cannot be met as recommended, if there are supply issues.
But as already mentioned by Dr Swaminathan, it is nevertheless important to underline, this is a two-dose regime and we know that two doses are needed to confer optimal protection in particular against variants of concern so I think this is an important reminder. But otherwise this is great news.
TJ Many thanks, Dr Hombach, Secretary to the SAGE. We will go to our next question. It's Michael Boucirkiw who is a contributor to CNN. Michael. Please unmute yourself.
00:25:02
MI Sorry about that. [Inaudible].
TJ Michael, unfortunately you are really broken. We can't hear anything so maybe we will try to take one more question and come back to you, Michael. Let's see if we can have Shoko from NHK.
SH Hello, Tarik, can you hear me?
TJ Hi, Shoko. Yes, please.
SH My question is not related to the special focus of today. Do you want to take other journalists' first or may I continue with my question?
TJ Yes, please.
SH Okay, thank you. Thank you for taking my question. There is an emerging study that mixing different COVID-19 vaccines for first and second doses produces a stronger immune response to the virus. This study of Oxford shows one dose of AstraZeneca vaccine followed by a Pfizer one was nearly as effective as two doses of the Pfizer one.
My question is if you are in an environment where it's difficult to obtain the same type of vaccines for both doses does WHO recommend taking two different types of vaccines? If so may we mix any of the COVID-19 vaccines which are already registered with emergency use listing or do we need to wait until more studies come on which combinations work and do not work? Thank you.
00:26:38
TJ Thank you, Shoko. I think Dr Hombach would be best placed to answer this. Joachim, if you are there please unmute yourself.
JH Yes, thanks very much, thanks for that question. Yes, again I think this is good news that we have obtained through this data, which again adds flexibility to countries if they face supply interruptions.
We have already in our position on the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine mentioned this, that the combination of AstraZeneca - and this is a vaccine where many countries have seen supply issues - followed by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine results in very good immunogenicity data.
00:27:30
So I think this is very good, it's reassuring. Both directions have now been tested and this is the study you are referring to and there are obviously many more so-called mix-and-match studies ongoing.
What I don't think we can do is to provide a generic recommendation that you can mix and match in any way you want. This is product-specific and it is important that these data are being generated and so we have to see but there are a lot of studies ongoing.
Again we have now the data for Pfizer and AstraZeneca with a spacing of about a month. More data will be coming but it's a great addition to flexibility. Whether this is a more general principle that can be applied is something to be determined.
TJ Thank you very much. Let's go to the next question. We have Megan Rowling from Thomson Reuters Foundation. Megan.
ME Hi. My question is about climate change and health with relation to the SIDS conference earlier this week. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the linkages between climate change, health and natural systems' degradation, deforestation and so on. Also now we're seeing heat-waves hitting many parts of the world which are also raising this issue up the agenda.
00:29:16
So I'd like to know what WHO is planning to do that's new in terms of getting governments to respond on this and putting it on the agenda at COP26. Also, Prime Minister Browne, if you have any particular demands from the Small Island Developing States side I'd be interested to hear that too. Thank you.
TJ Thank you very much. I think we should start with His Excellency, the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, would you like to address this question?
GB Yes, thank you very much. I believe I made the point earlier in my statement that there should be some form of compulsory compensation by the large emitters to ensure that whenever small island states suffer the consequences of these storms and other climate events to include droughts, ocean acidification and the general degradation of our biodiversity that there should be some form of reparations for the damages to ensure that something is enshrined in law for the large emitters who are obviously creating the conditions for global warming and pollution, thereby undermining our natural diversity and causing loss of lives and damage to property.
00:30:54
We believe that there should be some legal mechanism to obligate these states to provide compensation and also to provide funding so that we could adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.
I'm also of the view that there should be specialised instruments so for example there should be debt swaps in which we can literally have swaps for debt against climate investment.
Also I'm of the view that there should be some programme of debt write-offs for these countries that have had to borrow repeatedly in order to repair their infrastructure as a result of these climate events.
If we fail to make it obligatory then we'll continue to have all of these unfulfilled pledges of millions of dollars to be spent by these large emitters to assist with the adaptation and mitigation against climate change.
So I'm of the view that we now need to up the ante and to ensure that there's some form of legal obligation for compensation. By so doing I believe that countries will move faster towards achieving their Paris commitments and obviously will take necessary steps to transition into green energy and obviously to save the planet and to ensure the continuity or sustainability of human civilisation.
00:32:27
TJ Many thanks, Your Excellency. To address the first part of the question on WHO we are joined here in the room by Dr Naoko Yamamoto, our Assistant Director-General for Universal Health Coverage and Healthier Populations. Dr Yamamoto.
NY Thank you very much. Thank you for this question. As WHO, as the Prime Minister said, we are going to strengthen and accelerate our support to the SIDS countries and also we will strengthen the communication and partnership with other partners including financing partners like [unclear] fund and others.
Also we will work with the SIDS countries to amplify their voices and increase the visibility of the SIDS countries at many international, important political fora including the Food System Summit, COP26 and the [Unclear] World Summit and so on.
Also we will follow up with the SIDS countries leaders' group about our effort and in the governing body of WHO SIDS countries proposed to discuss at the governing body and DG Tedros has already expressed his support to this.
00:33:49
Also we agreed to set the next summit meeting in 2023 but when we talk about specific issues of COP26, as WHO we work with the UK Government and also our partners to stress the health issues including SIDS countries at COP26 this year in Glasgow and we focus on the clean energy, clean cooking energy as well as green health facilities and we're going to amplify our SIDS countries' voices and our efforts at this COP26 as well. Thank you.
TJ Many thanks, Dr Yamamoto. Now we will try to go back to Michael Boucirkiw to see if we have a better line. Michael.
MI Hello. Can you hear me okay now?
TJ Now it's better.
MI Okay, great. Greetings from Kiev; I'm here today. Dr Tedros mentioned the climate crisis. Recently in my home province of British Columbia we saw that unprecedented heatwave resulted in hundreds of sudden deaths and there was delayed and poor public messaging, few cooling centres and other shortcomings.
00:35:05
My question is the following; whether there's a feeling that elected leaders coming out of this pandemic are taking on board a build back better approach not only when it comes to handling future pandemics but things like climate emergencies, absorbing lessons learned, instituting better public health messaging.
I'll just read you very quickly one quick line that I wrote. I said, perhaps it was naive to expect humanity to turn a global crisis into an opportunity. A virus, a pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime to unite against a common enemy, to embark on a process of building back better on contentious issues like fighting climate change. I'm wondering your thoughts. Thank you.
TJ Thank you, Michael. So the question is about building back better. Maybe, Maria, you can start and I think we should also hear from the Prime Minister on this question.
MK Yes, thank you very much. Thanks, Michael, for the question and nice to hear your voice again. I think on the positive side we are seeing some changes that are being made to be better prepared for the next one. I think we should not mince words to suggest that there won't be a next one in terms of the next emerging pathogen or re-emerging pathogen, the next pandemic.
00:36:27
But I would have to be honest and say it's not enough. We are seeing a lot of countries using the current situation that we are in with COVID-19 and the trauma that all of us are facing because of this virus, the upheaval that all of us in all of our lives have experienced.
Not enough, I would say, is being done to build the fundamental systems that we need in public health, the surveillance systems that we need, the testing systems that we need including the use of novel testing that is coming online, the antigen-based tests that are there, the new technologies that are being advanced.
We need more investment in our health and care workers around the world to ensure that we have more people who are trained appropriately, who are provided the protection that they need to carry out the life-saving work that they do every single day, to support more community health workers who are the foundation of public health in so many countries around the world. There needs to be much more of that.
I think we need to do much more on building trust with our communities and keeping that trust, working hard to keep the trust of our communities, building the leaders, engagement, much more engagement with community leaders, with religious leaders, with women, with youth to be able to harness the energy and innovation that we have for any of the challenges that we see going forward.
00:37:56
I think we need much more on the partnership side, the supply chains that were broken, that so many partners are working to rebuild, to be able once we do have supplies to ship those supplies and the partnerships that we have through R&D.
I think the R&D side has been a real shining light in terms of this pandemic but again we need more so I think the short answer is not enough, if I'm being honest but I do want to be positive that it's not too late.
My biggest worry that I have right now is that we don't use this current situation to make those changes. If we - quote, unquote - wait until this pandemic is over we won't do it. So we are seeing countries - and what we've learned from this COVID-19 pandemic is the countries that had experience with other infectious diseases across Asia, in Africa, diseases like MERS, like SARS, like avian influenza, Ebola - I could go on and on - they built those systems over decades.
00:38:58
Preparedness is a constant; it's not a start-and-stop, it doesn't stutter, it's a constant. It needs constant investment in terms of energy, political will, financing and the money is there; we see it. We see the money being raised for COVID-19. That is something that really, really needs to be invested in going forward.
I'm sure others will want to talk about healthcare, access to healthcare and climate but we could probably spend the next hour on that answer but I really want to emphasise it's not enough so let's turn that around and really put that emphasis in and all countries need to be doing this.
TJ Thank you very much, Dr Van Kerkhove. Maybe the Prime Minister would like to add something on the issue of building back better and turning this pandemic into opportunities. Your Excellency.
GB Thank you very much. Evidently there was not sufficient effort in building resilient public health institutions prior to COVID and I would say that one of the possible outcomes of COVID is that most countries are now focusing on building greater health resilience to scale up their institutions, ensure that they have the supporting health institutions and the equipment, the technology and even the staffing to deal with future pandemics.
00:40:27
In fact it was predicted decades ago that we would have been faced with a pandemic at some point but evidently the issue did not get a lot of traction globally so COVID-19 has now forced us to address the issue of health resilience within our respective states.
You recognise too that when this virus first surfaced many global leaders were not taking it seriously but again the devastation to lives and livelihoods would force all of us as leaders globally to address the issue and also to build out our health infrastructure to ensure that we're better prepared for the next pandemic.
We know too that one of the consequences of climate change is the fact that more pathogens will be released and the likelihood of having future pandemics within a shorter period of time, maybe every several years, every decade is likely and that is one of the reasons why we have to prioritise the issue of climate change in order to protect the climate and at the same time even to control or to reduce or eliminate for that matter the pandemics that may follow in the future.
00:41:41
But perhaps the most significant lesson as a result of this pandemic is the need for global collaboration and recognising too the extent of our vulnerability to be as vulnerable as the weakest link.
So there were positive areas of development for future strong global collaboration to deal with these pandemics in the future and obviously to prioritise research and development and to make the necessary resources available.
We've seen for example in the development of the COVID vaccines that wealthy countries in particular would have allocated an enormous amount of resources in order to bring safe and efficacious vaccines to market within the shortest period of time.
So again I think that there have been some good lessons and as we realign and certainly adjust I'm quite sure that we'll be better prepared to fight future pandemics and perhaps reduce the extent of the economic and social damage that we'll have experienced from COVID-19.
00:42:50
TJ Many thanks, Your Excellency. Dr Tedros.
TAG Yes, I just wanted to add while agreeing with what the Prime Minister said, the virus is a common enemy and that's why we have to fight it in unison. This virus, this pandemic has also shown us the centrality of health and that's why investment in health will be very important.
Then if you take climate change it's the same; it's a common problem that affects the whole world but it also disproportionately affects the island countries, small islands especially more than any part of the world, although it's a problem for the whole world.
When you see it in terms of islands there are some projections some islands may submerge. It's a matter of survival but even if we say the projections are right and some countries could submerge, could be below sea it's only a matter of time until climate change affects others or not an island, which is big countries or mainland.
00:44:30
So it's a common problem and when I come back to the question from Mike, the political commitment, I think, is necessary but this is a matter of survival for the world and if that cannot trigger political commitment, if the real and clear danger cannot provoke or bring political commitment I cannot understand what else can bring commitment.
We have seen, by the way, during this pandemic many countries were reporting that their ecology or their environment actually improved because of less interference and probably less pollution and so on.
So it's a common problem; it's a matter of survival for the whole world. It's not a problem of the small island countries only so that means it's everybody's problem and the solution is everybody's solution. Having a real commitment will be very, very important from all leaders.
TJ Many thanks, Dr Tedros, and thanks to the Prime Minister and Dr Van Kerkhove for addressing these questions. We will now to go to Avjit Mayundar from AMN in India.
00:46:20
AV Hi, thank you for taking my question. Can you hear me?
TJ We can hear you.
AV Great. My question is, the virus is mutating and we have the delta variant at the moment so the question is, how long will the virus go on mutating, how far do we see the coronavirus affecting our world, what is the period that you see at the moment, do you see a longer period, [inaudible] a very, very long time for this pandemic?
MK Thanks very much for the question; it's a big one. We definitely don't have a crystal ball to see how long this is going to last but the virus is evolving. The virus has been evolving since it first emerged; this is what viruses do so the variants of concern that we are tracking; there are four currently, the alpha, beta, gamma and delta and it's continuing to evolve.
There will be more mutations, there will be more variants that will be detected and some of those will be variants of concern. There are sub-lineages of the delta variant that we're tracking as well.
00:47:32
The trajectory of this in each country is up to the plans that are in place and the ability to implement those plans; this comprehensive approach of surveillance, testing, early clinical care, isolation of cases, supported quarantine of contacts, the individual levels all of us can do with avoiding crowded spaces, knowing what our risk is every day and taking steps to lower our risk, wearing a mask, hand hygiene, physical distancing, etc, spending more time outdoors than indoors, improving ventilation, and vaccination.
All of these factors are part of the equation of when this pandemic will end. The goals that WHO has set, the strategic preparedness and response plan that WHO has outlined sets the course for ending the acute phase of the pandemic.
There are many, many factors of this pandemic that we will need to deal with for many years, addressing the inequalities that existed before this pandemic and are exacerbated during this pandemic but the trajectory and the outcome of this depends on our actions.
So the DG has laid out the goals of the vaccination coverage that need to be met by the end of September, by the end of the year, by this time next year. There is production that exists, there are vaccines that are available, there are more vaccines that are being studied in phase two, phase three trials.
00:49:05
There's tech transfer; there're a lot of positive things happening. We just need much more to be done to be able to get the vaccines to those who are most at risk in all countries and then to be distributing them further once production continues to increase.
But in the meantime we still have the public health and social measures that work against these variants including the delta variant that are circulating in a number of countries around the world. So it's up to us in terms of what we do and how quickly we can end this pandemic.
TJ Thank you, Dr Van Kerkhove. We have time for one or two more questions so let's go to a Geneva-based Reuters correspondent, Stephanie Nebehay. Stephanie, you have the floor.
ST Thank you, Tarik, thanks very much. I don't know who would be the right person to address this; Mike usually does but I'm not sure he's there today. Given that WHO is advising the IOC and the Tokyo organising committee what lessons are you drawing from what's happened in Europe during the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, which WHO regional office has said has driven up new cases by 10% or so in the last week because of the mixing and so forth?
00:50:35
So the question is what advice, what lessons are you drawing from that and any advice for the IOC and Tokyo Olympics organisers, please. Thank you.
MK Thanks for the question, Stephanie. It's also nice to hear your voice again. As you know, Stephanie, we outline, we work with the IOC and members who are handling sporting events around the world since the beginning of this pandemic, mass gathering events, to outline taking a risk-based approach and a risk assessment for each of the events that are happening whether these are planned events or whether these are spontaneous events and in doing so having the plans in place.
We've met several times with the IOC for the Olympic Games but we do know that even small gatherings like back-yard barbecues; if the virus is circulating and you don't take the proper precautions the virus can spread.
00:51:35
The IOC and others have outlined their plans in taking the approach for the Olympics and we've been engaging with them and advising them on the best use of those plans. We are learning from Euro 2020, we are learning from many of the different events whether these are religious-based events, whether there are events that are happening related to political rallies.
If the virus is present and precautions are not in place the virus will spread so our European office has set up a dashboard looking at transmission around Europe and then tracking, in our normal surveillance activities, looking at this virus.
We urge caution, we urge everyone to take caution in what they do. If you haven't been vaccinated or received the full doses of your vaccine, if you don't take the proper precautions, if the virus is circulating, you have an opportunity to become infected and pass that virus to someone else.
So we urge everybody to take a risk-based approach in what they do, in the decisions that they make; the choices that they make and the events they attend have consequences good and bad.
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So we will continue to track the spread and the circulation of the virus, continue to advise countries on the best use of the capacities that they have, taking into account all of the interventions that can be used to minimise the spread.
The pandemic is not over, as we all know and so it's really important that we continue every day to remain vigilant and do what we can to reduce the spread in our daily lives.
TJ Thank you, Dr Van Kerkhove. We will take the last question for today's session. It's Ana Pinto from Folha de Sao Paulo in Brazil. Ana.
AN Thanks, Tarik. I have a question about the Lambda variant, the one which was identified in Peru and I think it's now dominant in Peru and I guess is in about 20 different countries. I know it's a variant of interest. My question is when does a variant go from a variant of interest to a variant of concern.
I've read that there are some unusual mutations in this lambda variant and I'd like to know what's the state of play; what do you know already about this variant and if it's close to being considered a variant of concern. Thank you very much.
00:54:09
MK Thanks for this question. The lambda variant, the C37 is a variant of interest that WHO is tracking at the global level. The way that we discuss and characterise these variants; we work with a group of scientists around the world, our different networks. We're bringing in expertise with virology, with epidemiology, clinical management, people with bioinformatics so that we can analyse and study the sequences that are shared through platforms like GISAID.
Then we discuss the constellation of mutations, the combination of mutations that are identified. The lambda variant currently is characterised as a variant of interest at the global level. It would become a variant of concern if it has demonstrated pathways of increased transmissibility, if it has increased severity for example or if it has some kind of impact on our countermeasures.
We look at the geographic distribution of the spread of these different variants and we characterise these through a combination of technical consultations that we have with our expert networks using the information that we have on the variants, the specific mutations they have, any studies that are done in people, any studies that are done in the lab.
00:55:25
We do this routinely, regularly. Our virus evolution working group meets every two weeks but internally we have meetings through our epi teams, our lab teams, our regional teams. We meet with many of the different CDCs around the world, virtually of course, every week to discuss.
We work with our regional offices so there's a lot of information and gathering of information so it's a dynamic process. So if that is demonstrated to meet the characteristics of a variant of concern we will of course classify it as a variant of concern.
But I do think what you raise is important; it's about the process, to understand what is out there. We are limited in our ability to understand virus evolution because of sequencing that is happening around the world. The amount of genetic sequencing that is happening has increased substantially over time and there are more than two million full genome sequences that have been shared on GISAID for example.
But we need better geographic representation of the viruses and the sequencing of those viruses around the world. We're working through our regional offices, we're working with many partners around the world to build that capacity and enhance that capacity, which will not only be beneficial for SARS-CoV2 but will be beneficial for any future viruses, future pathogens that emerge.
00:56:48
So this is a work in progress and of course it also - related to the other question - deserves investment and we're grateful for our partners who are working with us to really invest in this really critical aspect of surveillance of these variants.
SS I just wanted to add to what Maria has said; another important issue that we're tracking is the effectiveness of vaccines against different variants that are circulating, particularly the variants of concern. As you heard, one of the criteria that are used to define a variant of concern is if that variant has a lower capacity for neutralisation of antibodies either after natural infection or after vaccines.
00:57:38
The information on this is rather patchy, particularly for some of the vaccines that are being widely used. We have a lot of information for example on the Pfizer/BioNTech and the AstraZeneca vaccines from many countries on effectiveness, on the prevention of not only severe disease but also infection and transmission to contacts but much less information on some of the other vaccines which are also widely used.
So WHO is really promoting the idea of well-designed and well-conducted vaccine effectiveness studies and our regional offices are working with countries to try and promote that kind of data collection both on the safety and also on the effectiveness of vaccines because this is going to be very helpful for us as we continuously examine data that's coming in and reassuring ourselves and the public that the vaccines that we're using are currently still effective against these variants.
As of now against the alpha, beta, gamma and delta we have some confidence that they are working and they're still preventing... very high protective efficacy against severe disease but we need to continue to watch that space as well.
TJ Many thanks to Dr Van Kerkhove and Dr Swaminathan for this important message on variants and vaccines. As we are coming to the end of our press briefing, I would like to invite His Excellency, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, to make some final comments. Your Excellency.
00:59:12
GB Thank you very much. Let me thank Dr Tedros and the others at the WHO for giving SIDS this great platform to bring global awareness to the issues affecting SIDS and obviously their own commitment to help us achieve healthy [unclear] in future.
I also want to thank the members of the media in advance for helping us to transmit the information globally so that global leaders will understand the challenges facing our countries, the vulnerabilities and the need for international collaboration and cooperation in order to ensure that SIDS will enjoy a healthy and resilient future. Thank you once again and again I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this press conference. Thank you.
TJ Many thanks, Your Excellency, for being with us today and sharing your thoughts on important issues that were raised this week at the summit. Before I hand over to Dr Tedros for his final words, just to remind everyone that we will send the audio file from the briefing tonight and the transcript will be available tomorrow. For any additional questions and to those journalists whose questions we were not able to take please contact us at media@who.int and we will try to assist. Dr Tedros.
TAG Thank you. Thank you, Tarik. I would like to start by thanking His Excellency, Prime Minister Browne for joining us today and also for his leadership. I would also like to thank the media group who have joined today and have a nice weekend to all; bon week-end.
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