COVID-19 Virtual Press conference transcript - 22 February 2021
Overview
00:00:24
FC Hello,
everybody. I am Fadela Chaib, speaking to you from WHO headquarters in Geneva
and welcoming you to our global COVID-19 press conference today, Monday 22nd
February. The virtual press conference today will include a special guest
joining to discuss COVID-19 vaccine research, development and roll-out in
conjunction with the COVID vaccine development strategy and implementation
virtual global health symposium running from 22nd to 26th
February.
Our special guests are Professor Lee Bollinger,
President, Columbia University, Dr Anthony Fauci, Director, US National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Nancy Messonnier, National
Center for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, US Center for Disease Control
and Prevention.
We have simultaneous interoperation in the six
UN languages plus Portuguese and Hindi. Before introducing to you the WHO
experts present here with us I would like to make the following suggestion, if
I may, to take full advantage of the presence of our three special guests.
I would like to encourage journalists to devote
the first round of questions to them and then we will take your questions to
the WHO experts for a second round so please get your questions ready.
00:01:56
Let me introduce to you the WHO participants.
Present in the room are the Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros, Dr Mike Ryan,
Executive Director, Health Emergencies, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead
for COVID-19, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, our Chief Scientist, Dr Mariangela Simao,
Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicine and Health Products, Dr Bruce
Aylward, Special Advisor to the DG and Lead on the ACT Accelerator and Dr Kate
O'Brien, Director, Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals.
We also have with us Dr Michel Yao online and Dr
Soce Fall for any questions on Ebola. Welcome, all. Now without further ado I
will hand over to Dr Tedros for his opening remarks and to introduce fully our
three special guests. Over to you, Dr Tedros.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you, Fadela, shukran. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
I'm deeply saddened and extremely concerned by the attack today on a
humanitarian convoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which left three
people dead including the Italian Ambassador to that country. I would like to
express my deepest condolences to their families as well as to the Government
and people of Italy.
00:03:27
On Friday leaders from several G7 countries and
the European Union committed US$4.3 billion in new funding to finance the
equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for COVID-19.
Several G7 countries also committed to sharing
doses with COVAX. I would like to express my deep thanks to the G7 leaders for
these contributions. These funds and donations move us one step closer to
meeting our target to star vaccination of health workers and older people in
all countries within the first 100 days of this year.
The G7 countries have shown leadership but we need
all countries to step up. We still face a gap of at least US$22.9 billion to
fully finance the ACT Accelerator this year. It's important to note however
that money is not the only challenge we face.
If there are no vaccines to buy money is
irrelevant. Currently some high-income countries are entering contracts with
vaccine manufacturers that undermine the deals that COVAX has in place and
reduce the number of doses COVAX can buy.
00:04:55
Even if we have the funds we can only deliver
vaccines to poorer countries if high-income countries co-operate in respecting
the deals COVAX has done and the new deals it's doing. This is not a matter of
charity; it's a matter of epidemiology. Unless we end the pandemic everywhere
we will not end it anywhere.
The longer the virus circulates the more
opportunity it has to change in ways that could make vaccines less effective.
So it's in the interest of all countries including high-income countries to
ensure that health workers, older people and other at-risk groups are first in
line for vaccines globally.
To achieve this we need more funding, we need
countries to share doses immediately, we need manufacturers to prioritise
contracts with COVAX and we also need a significant increase in the production
of vaccines.
Recently I had a very productive discussion with
President Emanuel Macron of France and I would like to thank him for his
commitment to share 5% of France's doses with COVAX. More vaccines are being
developed, approved and produced. There will be enough for everyone but for now
and for the rest of this year vaccines will be a limited resource. We must use
them as strategically as we can.
00:06:33
Tomorrow I will be speaking at the Columbia
University symposium on vaccine development, strategy and implementation. Today
I'm delighted to be joined by Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia
University. One of the first - actually after I became DG the first major
speech I gave was in 2017 in Columbia University. I was so honoured and that
was at the invitation of President Bollinger.
In that speech I said that we do not know where
or when the next global pandemic will occur but we do know that it will exact a
terrible toll both on human life and on the global economy. Three years later
we're unfortunately learning that lesson the hard way.
So, President Bollinger, thank you so much for
joining us today and you have the floor.
LB Thank
you very much. It's really a pleasure to be here this morning in advance of the
symposium on vaccines and global health and to be a special guest at this press
conference hosted by Dr Tedros and the World Health Organization.
00:08:14
Columbia has had a long-standing relationship
with the WHO and, as Dr Tedros said, he came to campus in 2017 shortly after
becoming Director-General and in that speech at what we called the world leader
forum Dr Tedros told the now eerily familiar tale of a virus that spread across
communities and continents killing relentlessly and bringing economies to a
halt.
The pandemic he was describing of course was
that of the 1918 Spanish flu but he used the example to emphasise the grave
threat posed by these kinds of infectious diseases and he lamented the lack of
global preparation that had been done to deal with another pandemic of that
scope and scale.
This has proved to be devastatingly prescient of
course. We're here today because Columbia, the WHO and our partners at the
United States NIH and CDC share a commitment to supporting and strengthening
the multinational and multilateral work that is required to address the world's
greatest health challenges, with COVID-19 chief among them.
00:09:33
Columbia takes very seriously its role as the
convenor and host of forums like the vaccine symposium opening later today. The
five-day event series is designed to highlight the important work being done
across all sectors of society on what many would say is the defining issue of
the pandemic at this moment and that is vaccines.
I'm delighted to join the representatives from
the NIH and the CDC here today, Drs Anthony Fauci and Nancy Messonnier. I'd
also like to recognise Drs Marc Grodman, Wilma James, Laurence Sandbury and
Philip La Rousa [?] for their leadership in organising the vaccine symposium
which will begin, as I said, later on today. Thank you very much.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much, President Bollinger. Our next guest needs no
introduction; Dr Tony Fauci. Dr Tony Fauci is one of the best-known names in
global health and for good reason. For decades Dr Fauci has not only been one
of the world's leading infectious disease experts; he has also been a fearless
defender and articulate explainer of science and public health.
00:10:54
My friend, Tony, thank you for your leadership
over so many years and especially during the past year and thank you for
joining us today. You have the floor.
TF Thank
you very much, my dear friend, Tedros. I'd like to just spend a couple of
minutes talking a bit about the scientific aspects of vaccine development which
have allowed us to get to the point where we now have a number of vaccines that
have been shown - and more to come - to be highly efficacious and safe in the
prevention of disease associated with SARS-CoV-2.
One of the most important aspects of the science
that has emerged over this past year has been a realisation of the importance
of the vaccine construct which really involves two major components; the
immunogen itself and the vaccine platform.
One of the really critical issues that has
emerged was the understanding of the role of structure-based vaccine design
which originated actually and got its maturity in a field that has not yet come
up with a successful vaccine, namely HIV, where we've been trying to get the
right confirmation of the molecule to be able to introduce broadly neutralising
antibodies.
00:12:27
But it was this practice of structure-based
vaccine design which allowed investigators at the NIH, particularly Barney
Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett and their colleagues, to actually develop an
immunogen in the form of a pre-fusion stabilised spike protein which has been
used now in five out of the six vaccines that have been pursued within the
context of the NIH's involvement, namely the development of and/or facilitation
of the clinical trials of this vaccine.
I think it is an extraordinary testimony to the
fundamental basic science that has antedated that development; people often
ask, we have a vaccine where the virus was made known in the first ten days of
January when the Chinese published on a public database the sequence of the
vaccine and only 11 months later we have vaccine going into the arms of
individuals; a totally unprecedented accomplishment of something that would
have normally taken years that actually was accomplished in months.
Again what the world needs to realise is that
this was a result of the extraordinary investment that has been made in
fundamental biomedical research. The other point I'd like to bring out is at
least for the trials that were supported by the US Government - and we all know
that a number of other countries have done very good jobs in development and
testing of vaccines.
00:14:20
But what we put in investment decades ago into a
national and international clinical trials network that allowed us for years to
test drugs for HIV, vaccine and prevention modalities for HIV were converted
into the capability of testing vaccines for COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2.
There were three separate platforms that were
pursued; the MRNA, the Adeno, both human and chimp, as well as recombinant
protein and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Now that the
science has brought us there we have an extraordinary challenge and the
challenge is clearly we need to get vaccines produced and distributed in an
equitable way not only in the United States - because it is clear that each
country must take care of their own - but also the equitable distribution, as
mentioned by Dr Tedros, of vaccines so that we realise that this is a global
pandemic requiring a global response.
00:15:45
I want to reiterate what Dr Tedros said, that an
outbreak in any part of the world is an outbreak for the entire world and so we
need over the next months to years to make a major commitment to not only
continue with the science but to make sure that we implement the distribution
of this vaccine so that we get a global control of this historic pandemic. I'll
stop there; thank you very much.
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much, Tony. Finally it's my honour to welcome Dr Nancy
Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory
Diseases at the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention. Dr Messonnier is
leading the CDC's efforts on COVID-19 vaccination and is one of the world's
leading experts on vaccination.
Among many other achievements she played a vital
role in the development and implementation of a low-cost vaccine to prevent
epidemic meningococcal meningitis in Africa. Dr Messonnier, thank you so much
for joining us today and you have the floor.
NM Hello.
Can you hear me?
TAG Yes,
we hear you.
NM I'm
sorry, I had technical difficulties. Good morning and good afternoon. It's a
pleasure to be here to speak with all of you today.
00:17:38
Although, as you've heard from Dr Fauci,
remarkable advances have been made in science and medicine have been made
during the past century we're constantly reminded that we live in a universe of
microbes that are forever changing and adapting themselves to the human host
and the defences that we create.
It's remarkable that a year ago in the United
States there were 14 COVID-19 cases and as of today we've had more than 500,000
deaths. Even though we've started to see decreasing cases and deaths here in
the US and in many areas of the world the COVID pandemic is clearly not at an
end; we still have a long way to go.
Thankfully as soon as the virus that caused
COVID-19 was discovered scientists around the world began working on vaccines
to protect us. The use of a safe and effective vaccine worldwide will be a
game-changer as we work together to beat the pandemic.
00:18:35
Like other countries the US has invested in multiple
vaccines and because of the urgent need time between steps in clinical trial
phases was shortened or eliminated and in some cases steps were done in
parallel to accelerate the process whenever it was safe to do so.
The US now has two authorised vaccines in use
and another under review this week. While these and other COVID-19 vaccines
have been fast-tracked the same processes to make and assess these vaccines are
being used.
Additionally, as Dr Fauci described, the type of
vaccines that are being developed are not new. Both the Pfizer and Moderna
vaccines use a platform, messenger RNA, that has been under development for
years and other vaccines use viral vectors which use a modified version of a
different virus to deliver important instructions to our cells.
These vaccines have been well studied in
clinical trials and were used to respond to recent Ebola outbreaks including to
vaccinate pregnant women and children. As we use these vaccines we will
continue to study their safety. CDC has put in place the most robust vaccine
safety monitoring system in US history and of course we're sharing that
information with our international colleagues.
00:19:56
In the US we've recommended those who have been
disproportionately affected by COVID-19, like the elderly as well as those who
we rely on to keep the country running including healthcare personnel and
essential workers, to be prioritised for vaccination.
We've engaged in several public/private
partnerships to bring vaccine to where people are including nursing homes and
assisted living facilities, retail pharmacies where people typically get
medication, and mobile clinics to ensure equity in access for communities of
colour who have borne a heavier burden of disease and death in the US.
It's essential that as we roll out these vaccine
programmes the people who need it most can have access but we know that doesn't
matter if people are unwilling to get vaccinated. It's essential that everyone
have confidence in the vaccination programme including having trust in the
vaccine, the vaccinator and the system that produced it.
00:20:58
CDC has adapted our vaccinate with confidence
strategy for COVID-19 vaccine, which is built on three pillars; building trust,
sharing clear, complete and accurate messages about COVID-19 vaccine and taking
visible actions to build trust, empowering healthcare personnel, to promote
confidence in healthcare personnel in their decisions to get vaccinated and to
recommend vaccination to their patients, and engaging communities and
individuals in a sustainable, equitable and inclusive way.
We're also working with communities throughout
the US to rebuild trust, especially in communities of colour that have been
disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and have experienced systemic racism
and inequity in access to healthcare in the US.
It's encouraging to see how many vaccines are
being used worldwide and to know that more are on the way but just like one
player on a football team cannot win the game alone we cannot beat this
pandemic one country at a time.
As others have said, no country will be safe
from COVID-19 until all countries are protected. Diseases know no boundaries.
We saw that two years ago when measles worldwide increased and it's certainly
been true in the past year. Vaccination is a critical tool in bringing this
unprecedented pandemic to an end. Thank you.
00:22:26
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much, Dr Messonnier, and thank you to all our guests for
joining us today. I hope you will stay with us to answer some of the questions
from the media.
As we often say, it's not vaccines that save
lives; it's vaccination. In 1798 Edward Jenner administered the first vaccine
against smallpox. It took another 184 years for smallpox to be eradicated. In
combination with proven public health measures vaccines give us the tools to
control COVID-19. Whether we can is no longer a test of science; it's a test of
character. Fadela, back to you.
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, use the raise your hand function
in order to get in the queue. I will start with Sophie Mkwena from South
African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC South Africa, to ask the first question.
Sophie.
00:23:49
SO Thank
you so much. My question is directed to Dr Fauci in particular. Doctor, in
developing countries such as South Africa there's an attempt to ensure that
they don't just import vaccine but they are able to develop vaccine. What can
the international community do, particularly the developed nations such as the
United States of America with its capacity, to help these countries who are
saying, we want to be at the same level with the developed nations so that we
don't rely on charity?
TF That's
a very good question.
FC Thank
you, Sophie.
TF That's
a very good question that gets asked often and I think the point that you're
making is one that really is critical. The best way to have sustainable
capability of being able to respond to outbreaks, not only the outbreak of
COVID-19 but also the inevitable outbreaks that will also occur from the
future, is to build capacity within country that's sustainable capacity.
So one of the things that developed nations need
to pay attention to is that in addition in the immediate sense, which you don't
have the time right now to have something built in a week or two but to think
for the future as well as in the intermediate time, to have countries like
South Africa and other southern African countries have the capability to make
their own vaccine so that they would be independent of having to rely on the
donation of vaccines from other countries.
00:25:51
I think it goes not only for South Africa but so
many other countries that if given the resources and the capabilities would
really be quite capable of making vaccine to take care of their own population.
FC Thank
you, Dr Fauci. Dr Swaminathan, you have the floor.
SS Just
to add to what Dr Fauci said, what the Director-General has been calling for is
for those who have the technology, manufacturers or the academic labs, to share
with companies, production sites in different countries around the world to
actually do that technology transfer and to build the capacity, especially with
the new platform technologies that can be very quickly adapted to deal with
other pathogens.
WHO set up a mechanism, the COVID technology
access pool, which can facilitate the tech transfer and so I hope that we will
see a growing interest in this because I think it'll only help everyone if we
have more sites across the world distributed geographically that are capable of
producing vaccines at short notice.
00:27:07
It'll help this pandemic and it's also going to
help for future pandemics as well as for other infectious diseases of public
health importance. Thank you.
FC Thank
you. I would like now to invite Donato Mancini from the Financial Times to ask
the next question. Donato, you have the floor.
DO Hi.
Can you hear me?
FC Very
well. Go ahead, please.
DO Thanks
for taking my question. It's about access to vaccines. We all know about CTAP.
I've heard Dr Swaminathan's comments today but we also know that corporate
interest in CTAP remains low. I'd like to ask your US guests what they make of
calls to open up intellectual property and spur tech transfer in order to widen
access to vaccines.
Does the US have a view on CTAP, does the US
have a view on opening up IP and more broadly what can be done to entice
companies to share their IP? Thank you.
00:28:10
FC Thank
you, Donato. Dr Fauci, do you want to take this question? Or any of our guests
are welcome to interfere at any time.
TF Yes,
I'd be happy to give it a show but I'm sure that my colleagues from the United
States also might be able to weigh in. That is obviously always a very
sensitive issue but an issue that I think really does need to be addressed.
We have some good examples dating back to the
early years of HIV when drugs, antiretroviral drugs that were life-saving in
the developed world, particularly for 1996 on, were the drugs that essentially
could prolong the lives of people with HIV in a way that would have been
unimaginable a few years before.
But when the PEPVAR programme was started by the
United States under George W Bush it was clear that in order to get the drugs
to the countries and the individuals in those countries, particularly in
Southern Africa, the Caribbean and other areas where it would be difficult for
those countries and people within those countries to develop or even pay for
the drugs themselves, there were things that were done with regard for example
to the generic drugs.
00:29:46
There was a lot of discussion as to whether or
not that would have been able to have been done and would that interfere with
the appropriate profit of companies that made major, major investments in the
development of their drugs.
Actually it worked out very well because through
the PEPVAR and Global Fund project we were able to get life-saving drugs to
millions and millions of people, saving now well up to 17 million lives and it
did not have a deleterious effect on the companies, who continued to do well
financially and continued to make investments in research.
So I'm not sure exactly what the model will be
but I think at least we do have some precedent that you can make arrangements
with companies that would allow them both to maintain a considerable amount of
profit at the same time that areas of the world that don't have resources can
share in a way that would be life-saving to literally millions of people. I'll
stop but I'd be happy to hear what others have to say.
00:30:55
FC Thank
you, Dr Fauci. We are very privileged to have several professors from the
University of Columbia happy also to provide some response. I would like to
call on Dr Marc Grodman, Professor at Columbia University, who would like to
provide some comment to Donato. You have the floor, Doctor.
MG Thank
you very much. Just To go back both to this question and to the previous
question, this very much strikes at the reason why there is a symposium in the
first place. Vaccines are complex. New vaccines are complex but if you think
about it the vaccine solution is logarithmically even more complex.
How you go from the development to all the other
issues that are there vis a vis both distribution, how you go in and overcome,
as Dr Fauci just mentioned, many of the competitive business issues, how you
overcome many of the political issues, how you address the ethical questions
are all part of the overall solution.
00:32:02
The idea of the symposium was to bring in all
these different aspects because this is what the solution all means. Many of
the things that you mention are aspirational and because of the severity of
what we've been through, the severity of the pandemic a lot of the conflicts
which have occurred prior to this point in vaccine development; many of them
have been overcome and blurred.
The question and the challenge is going to be
how we go from thinking about these threats as to what if to what if it happens
again and what do we get out of this kind of massive co-operation, which we're
still just on the brink of being able to overcome, to real solutions that are
going to make future vaccines more equitable.
That's why we wanted to put together a symposium
to put together people not only to look at the full continuum of vaccine
development but in science and the research and development and the ethical
issues of distribution, but as well to be able to look at it from a global
perspective.
So I think the book very much is unwritten right
now. The challenge is to use what we've been through and the experience and the
perceived success to come into concrete solutions into the future.
00:33:24
FC Thank
you, Dr Grodman, Professor at Columbia University. I would like to ask Dr
Laurent Sandbury, Associate Dean for the International Programme in Global
Health, Columbia University, also to provide some comment. You have the floor,
Doctor.
Dr Sandbury, you have the floor.
Dr Sandbury, you have the floor. No? Now I would
like to invite Dr Simao and we will come back to Dr Laurent Sandbury if he
still wants the floor. Thank you. Dr Simao, you have the floor.
MS Thank
you. Thank you, Donato, for the question and thanks also to Dr Fauci for
reminding us of the HIV response. I think it's a very good example because we
don't have the time we had. We cannot afford to take ten years for medicines or
vaccines to reach developing countries this time. I think it took too long with
HIV and too many people died unnecessarily.
Since then there have been mechanisms in place.
We have for example the Medicines Patent Pool, which already has around ten
years of existence and it's a proven method, a platform to ensure that both
voluntary licensing and technology transfer can help to increase access to
medicines for HIV, TB and malaria.
00:35:20
Why not use the platforms that we, WHO are
putting in place like the CTAP, the COVID Technology Access Pool, to ensure
that...? Intellectual property needs to be managed either through a voluntary
licence or other measures but it's not enough. Intellectual property is not the
endpoint.
The endpoint is increasing manufacturing
capacity and making sure the quality-assured, efficacious and safe vaccines
reach developing countries. So this is a combination of things in this platform
and I like the question also on the incentives; what are the incentives - and
Dr Fauci pointed to some - that would bring into place a situation where we can
have targets short-term, which is this year, mid-term next year and the
following years also in preparation for future pandemics, as Dr Swaminathan
mentioned before. Thank you.
FC Thank
you. I would like now to give the floor to Laurent Zero from the Swiss news
agency. Laurent, can you hear me?
LA Yes,
thank you, Fadela. Can you hear me?
FC Yes.
Go ahead, please, Laurent.
00:36:39
LA Thank
you so much. A question to Dr Fauci; the new US administration now has
committed to fund COVAX but it has been quite reluctant so far to speak about
sharing the US doses for developing countries. At the G7 President Emanuel
Macron made a concrete proposal about 30 million doses that could be shared
quite quickly to Africa in order to vaccinate the health workers.
After that call can we expect another move from
the US administration on that? Thank you.
TF Thank
you for that question. I don't think I can comment on that, not because I don't
want to but because I'm really not sure. We had discussions, you might recall,
when I addressed the executive committee of the WHO and made the announcement
that we would join COVAX, which we did and the President has committed, as you
know, over a period of time $4 billion, $2 billion right away and two billion
to come.
I would have to get back with you because there
will be discussions about what else, if anything, will be done vis a vis COVAX.
But I don't think... and I cannot really comment definitively about what the
commitment would be regarding the sharing of doses as was proposed by President
Macron.
00:38:13
I'll have to just pull back and perhaps get back
to you on that because I'd be reluctant to make a statement in that regard.
FC Thank
you, Dr Fauci. I would like now to invite Paulina Alcazar from Encadena News,
Cancun, to ask the next question. Paulina, you have the floor.
TR Thank
you, Fadela, and hello from the Mexican Caribbean region. People are asking
about potential allergies to the components of the vaccines such as
preservatives or coadjuvants. Are there lists of these so that people can
calmly go and be vaccinated and we can ensure people such as asthmatic people
can know what ingredients there are? Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Paulina. Dr Fauci, do you want to take this question, please?
TF Yes,
sure. We have seen some anaphylactic reactions that have been associated with
the two vaccines that have been currently distributed in the United States and
that is the Pfizer MRNA and the Moderna RNA. These are reactions that are
likely - we're not 100% sure - to the polyethylene glycol in the vaccine
preparation.
00:39:49
This has not been definitively proven yet but
this is something that is being suspected. We're working on trying to find out
what the genesis is and what the pathogenesis of these allergic reactions is.
When you look at them they can be severe.
We are telling individuals that unless you have
a known anaphylactic reaction to a known component of the vaccine you should
not get vaccinated [sic]. However for other people who have a history of
allergic reactions that is not a contraindication to get vaccinated.
We feel they can and should get vaccinated but
if you have a history of anaphylactic reaction to get vaccinated in a
particular location that has the capability of treating anaphylactic reactions.
If you look at the numbers, a paper recently came out examining that and there
are between four and five per million anaphylactic reactions to the Pfizer and
between two and three per million to the Moderna.
00:41:12
So it's an unusual, rare interaction but it
should not be a contraindication for someone to get the vaccine because the
risk of getting COVID in the situation is likely greater than the risk of
getting any kind of deleterious reaction. Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Dr Fauci. Dr Swaminathan, you have the floor.
SS Just
to add to what Dr Fauci said, I think this is an important question and that
people would like to know how safety is being monitored, particularly since
these vaccines were all developed so quickly.
These questions are being asked by people so we
need to reassure them that there are systems in place; I think Dr Messonnier
mentioned within the US but every country has a system in place to do safety
monitoring, what we call pharmacovigilance and the WHO coordinates this.
There is a global vaccine safety committee that
looks at this data, they look at it every week, data from all countries, from
manufacturers, regulators and countries' systems. So far we've had over 200
million vaccine doses that have gone into people around the world and there
have been no alarming safety signals but we will continue to monitor and update
if anything changes. Thank you.
00:42:46
FC Thank
you, Dr Swaminathan. I would like now to invite Christiane Ulrich from DPA,
German news agency, to ask the next question. Christiane, you have the floor.
Christiane, can you hear me?
CH Hello,
yes. Can you hear me?
FC Very
well. Go ahead, Christiane.
CH Thank
you, Fadela, for taking my question. I was going to direct it to Dr Messonnier
and we broached it with Dr Fauci earlier but maybe the US Department of Health
has a clearer answer. Is the US going to share doses of the vaccine that they
have now secured for the US to follow the passionate appeals by Dr Tedros and
others in the last few days? Thank you very much.
FC Thank
you, Christiane. Dr Messonnier, do you want to take this question?
NM I
can take it but my answer will be the same as Dr Fauci's. I think it's a very
important issue. I know that there are ongoing discussions right now in the US
about the importance of global COVID control and the role that vaccine will
play in it but I don't have a specific answer in terms of any decisions or
where the discussions are. We'll really have to get back to you on that.
00:44:23
FC Thank
you, Dr Messonnier. I would like now to invite Carmen (not from POLITICO
contrary to what was announced by the moderator) to ask the next question. Carmen.
Carmen, you have the floor.
Can you please unmute yourself?
CA You
can hear me.
FC Yes,
I can. Go ahead, please, Carmen.
CA Thank
you very much. I have a question also on anaphylactic shock. I have heard some
people ask where is the difference because the [unclear] zero against allergic
plants and so on. It is recommended after the injection to stay 30 minutes to
see if something happens.
So now in the theme of the vaccine it is
recommended everywhere 15 minutes. The question is, what is the reason behind
this time difference?
00:45:48
TF The
recommendation is if you have a history of allergic reaction then you stay for
30 minutes; if you don't have any history of allergic reactions such as
anaphylaxis then 15 minutes would be enough but Dr Messonnier is probably more
experienced in that type of thing than I am so perhaps she can confirm or
amplify that.
NM I
can definitely confirm what Dr Fauci said but maybe to add a little more
context, we ask people how have had a history of anaphylaxis to stay 30 minutes
because when we look at the onset of anaphylaxis in the cases in the United
States they've all occurred within that 30-minute time frame.
So out of an additional caution we're asking
people with anaphylaxis to stay a little longer so that we can be sure that
they're under medical supervision if there is any unfortunate onset of allergic
reaction to the vaccines.
FC Thank
you, Dr Messonnier and Dr Fauci. I would like now to give the floor to Simon
Ateba, Africa News Today, Washington. You have the floor, Simon.
00:47:13
SI Thank
you for taking my question. This is Simon Ateba for Today News Africa in
Washington DC. My question goes to Dr Fauci. Yesterday President Biden's
National Security Advisor spoke about the report being prepared by the WHO and
said the Biden Administration has little confidence in the report.
He said he doesn't believe China gave enough
data. Dr Fauci, what type of information do you still need from China or from
the WHO, what type of report do you expect from the WHO? Thank you.
FC Thank
you, Simon. Just checking but I think that Dr Fauci left so we will make sure
he has your question and see if he can respond in written form. Thank you all.
I think it's already been one hour and I would like to ask our guests if they
want to make any closing remarks before we close this press conference. Dr
Messonnier, Professor Bollinger, you have the floor.
LB Thank
you. On behalf of Columbia, I'm just grateful to the WHO and all the US
colleagues for being part of this at Columbia.
FC Thank
you, Professor Bollinger. Dr Messonnier, do you want to take the floor? No. I
think now it's time to hand over to Dr Tedros for his final remarks. Dr Tedros,
you have the floor.
00:49:35
TAG Thank
you. Thank you so much, Fadela. I would just like to use the opportunity to
thank Professor Bollinger, Dr Tony Fauci and Dr Nancy Messonnier for joining us
today and not only for joining us today but I would like to use this
opportunity also to thank you for our co-operation and partnership; the
partnership between WHO and Columbia University, the partnership between WHO
and CDC and NIH.
Thank you so much for joining and we would like
also to thank the media, the journalists who have joined us today. Thank you,
Fadela, and back to you.
FC Thank
you, Dr Tedros. Just to remind journalists, we will be sending the audio file
and Dr Tedros' remarks right after this press conference. The full transcript
will be posted on the WHO website tomorrow morning. If you have any follow-up
questions please do not hesitate to email mediainquiries@who.int
Thank you to our guests, to you my colleagues
here in the room and see you next time.
00:50:52