If rich nations think the pandemic is over, they should help lower-income countries reach that point too, a top World Health Organization official said. WHO chief adviser Bruce Aylward warned in an interview that wealthier countries must not back down from tackling Covid-19 as a global problem now, ahead of potential future waves of infection. Aylward coordinates the ACT-Accelerator, a partnership between the WHO and other global health bodies to help poorer countries access COVID-19 tools. The effort, which includes a vaccine targeting COVAX, has reached billions of people around the world, but has faced criticism for not moving fast enough.
On September 15, as the number of weekly reported deaths from Covid-19 fell to the lowest level since March 2020, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the end of the pandemic was now in sight. But he also warned that if the world does not seize the opportunity now, there is still a risk of further variation, death, disruption and uncertainty. Earlier in the interview, US President Joe Biden declared that “the pandemic is over.
When I hear them say, ‘Well, we’re doing so well here,’ it’s like, ‘Great, now you can really help us do the rest of the world,'” Aylward said. Aylward said the group he coordinates, which focuses on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests around the world, is not yet ready to emerge from the emergency phase of dealing with the pandemic and that countries must be prepared and have treatments in place for any further waves of infection.
“If you go to bed right now and this wave hits us in three months… God – blood on your hands,” he said. He also emphasized that Biden had a point domestically because the United States has good access to all the tools of COVID. He added that it has also not diminished its global commitment to the fight against COVID.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, stressed that the virus is still “intensely circulating” around the world and that the agency believes the reported numbers of cases are underestimates. There has been some speculation that the effort may end the partnership between the WHO and other global health bodies in the fall, but Aylward said it is simply changing its focus as the pandemic changes.
Over the next six months, the partnership will focus primarily on delivering vaccines to the roughly one-quarter of the world’s unvaccinated health care workers and older people, as well as improving access to testing and treatment, particularly with Pfizer’s Paxlovid, he said.
It will also look to the future because COVID is “here to stay” and unless systems are put in place, support will collapse once other industrialized countries also think the pandemic is over, Aylward said. The initiative already has an $11 billion gap in its budget, with most of the available $5.7 billion pledged for vaccines rather than tests or treatments.
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