Coronavirus ‘is not tired of us’, resist the urge to turn a blind eye to the virus says WHO chief

Tedros warned that the pandemic had laid naked the necessity for the world to recapture a “sense of widespread goal”, which lately has been eroded by the “creeping tides of misguided nationalism and isolationism”.

The World Well being Group’s chief referred to as Monday on everybody to maintain preventing COVID-19 , warning that whereas we could also be sick of battling the pandemic, the virus is “not bored with us”.

Chatting with WHO’s principal annual meeting, which resumed Monday after being minimize quick in Might, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus additionally hailed the election of Joe Biden as the following US president, voicing hope it might sign tighter world cooperation to finish the pandemic.

It was important, he mentioned, for individuals to observe the science and resist the urge to show a blind eye to the virus.

“We is perhaps bored with COVID-19 . However it’s not bored with us,” he mentioned.

Tedros, talking from quarantine after coming involved with somebody who examined optimistic for COVID-19 , warned that the virus preys on weak point.

“It preys on these in weaker well being, nevertheless it preys on different weaknesses too: inequality, division, denial, wishful considering and wilful ignorance,” he mentioned.

“We can’t negotiate with it, nor shut our eyes and hope it goes away.”

“It pays no heed to political rhetoric or conspiracy theories,” he mentioned.

“Our solely hope is science, options and solidarity.”

His remark got here after COVID-19 has killed greater than 1.25 million individuals and contaminated over 50 million worldwide because it first surfaced in China late final yr.

Tedros warned that the pandemic had laid naked the necessity for the world to recapture a “sense of widespread goal”, which lately has been eroded by the “creeping tides of misguided nationalism and isolationism”.

“In that spirit, we congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and we stay up for working with their administration very intently.”

Biden has signalled that his administration will reverse Donald Trump’s choice to withdraw the USA — historically WHO’s high donor — from the UN well being company.

“We have to reimagine management, constructed on mutual belief and mutual accountability, to finish the pandemic and handle the elemental inequalities that lie on the root of so most of the world’s issues,” Tedros mentioned.

Taiwan frozen out

Noticeably absent from this week’s resumed World Well being Meeting (WHA) was Taiwan, which mentioned Chinese language “obstruction” had prevented it from attending and accused the WHO of prioritising politics over well being.

The self-ruled island of 23 million has seen exceptional success in combating the pandemic — with solely seven deaths and fewer than 600 confirmed circumstances.

However it’s frozen out of the WHO by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its personal territory — not even allowed to take part as an observer as was the case between 2009 and 2016.

“Because the world remains to be underneath critical menace of the COVID-19 pandemic… it’s an irony to the ‘well being for all’ aim underneath the WHO constitution” to exclude Taiwan, Taipei’s overseas ministry mentioned Monday.

The WHA can even deal with the greater than 60 different well being emergencies the WHO has responded to this yr, together with measles, Ebola and yellow fever outbreaks.

It will likely be an event for international locations to debate reforming the WHO so it will probably reply to challenges like pandemics sooner and extra successfully.

Tedros referred to as once more for “a system by which international locations conform to a daily and clear strategy of peer overview” of their well being insurance policies.

He mentioned the Common Periodic Evaluation on the UN Human Rights Council, the place every nation’s rights state of affairs is evaluated each few years, might function inspiration.

The concept was put ahead final yr by the Central African Republic and Benin, and France, Germany and Cameroon have already accepted to work on this venture, he added.

The problem of transparency in well being insurance policies is on the coronary heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, with China accused by some international locations together with the USA of getting coated up at the least the primary circumstances of coronavirus .