Social mixing, lack of public health safety, large gatherings led to COVID surge in India: WHO

World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that the surge in COVID 10 cases in countries like India, Brazil and Nepal, not only because of variants like B617, B117, but also due to social mixing, lack of public health safety measures and large gatherings.

WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to leadership across the global needs to make health a central concern. Addressing an online press conference today, Dr Ghebreyesus said, “The unprecedented crisis needs unprecedented solutions.”

The press conference was organised in the light of a record high daily COVID 19 cases globally, with about 100,000 deaths taking place on a weekly basis. The Director General addressed the economic, social and health impacts of COVID-19 and introduced the new WHO council on the Economics of Health for All.

The WHO chief stated that a divided world cannot defeat the virus and stressed the need for resource sharing. On the role of the world’s most powerful countries, the G7, Dr Ghebreyesus reiterated the need to push for sharing and donating of life saving supplements, vaccines to lower income countries. He claimed that the lower-income countries account for only 0.3 per cent of the total administered vaccines. 

“G-7 has to help in covering the gap, as these countries are abundant in volume of vaccines as well as production,” said Dr Bruce Alyward, Senior Advisor to the DG, WHO. He added that along with sharing, more financial investment and scaling up manufacturing of vaccines by G-7 nations is the need of the hour.

In his opening remarks, Dr Ghebreyesus announced WHO Council’s objective to pursue and support countries look at health for all as a goal. The WHO Council has been convened to formulate and work upon financial systems to build healthy societies that are just, inclusive, equitable and sustainable. It was announced that the Council will be chaired by Professor Mariana Mazzucato, who is a professor of Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. A team of 11 women of various nationalities will work together to ‘reverse the logic’ of ‘failing economy is failing of health’ to ‘focusing on health for all to strengthen and restructure economic models’, she said. She added that the council will be looking at four major aspects of building the 'Health for All’ model - measurement, capacity, finance and lastly innovation.

According to Prof. Mazzucato, COVID-19 has proved that health and health systems are a key concern world over and bringing the health infrastructure to centre would require reimagining the role of public sector, investing in health innovation and incentivising it, introducing new financial tools and remodelling partnerships between the public and the private sectors.

To ‘build back better’ is the goal, said Prof Mazzucato as she assured that the council will not be a ‘talk-shop’ but an outcome-oriented body. She concluded by saying that the ‘Health for All’ plan will be devised by collective intelligence of thinkers and policy makers, who will strive to change the current status quo that keeps taking us from one crisis to another.

Dr Ghebreyesus announced that WHO has enlisted the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. It has been produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and has become the sixth vaccine to get WHO validation on the basis of safety and efficacy.

The WHO representatives at the press conference lauded Joe Biden’s decision on the vaccine patent waivers. In addition to that, the WHO panel encouraged countries to take initiative like Sweden that had donated 1 million doses to the COVAX facility.