The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, kicked off the 75th General Health Assembly this Sunday with a message of caution in the face of the current situation of the coronavirus pandemic, a crisis that “definitely is not over yet.”
The 75th World Health Assemblythe decision-making body of the WHO Composed of representatives from 194 countries, it will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 22 to 28, 2022 and is the first face-to-face edition since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tedros has warned that reported cases are increasing in almost 70 countries around the world after a few months of significant decline in deaths and infections, “in a world in which testing rates have plummeted.”
This virus has surprised us at every step, it has been a storm that has hit communities over and over again, and we still cannot predict its trajectory or its intensity.”
The person in charge of WHO He also recalled the translation of the impact of the campaign vaccination in each countrywhich has varied significantly depending on their purchasing power: only 57 countries have vaccinated more than 70% of their population, almost all of them high-income countries.
He also noted that in some countries there is still insufficient political commitment to roll out vaccines, and there are still gaps in operational and financial capacity.
“And in general, we continue to perceive doubts among the population about vaccines, due to misinformation or misinformation, in general terms,” he said.
The director of the WHO took advantage of his speech to remember that the coronavirus is not the only health crisis in the world, and that it coexists with ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, monkeypox and hepatitis of unknown cause, as well as complex humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.
“We are facing a formidable convergence of disease, drought, famine and war, fueled by climate change, inequality and geopolitical rivalry,” Tedros said.
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