Why does the WHO believe that the opportunity to end the coronavirus in 2022 is at risk?

In a message for the Global Action Meeting against COVID-19 sponsored by the United States, Tedros warned that the high number of mild cases of the disease in countries with high vaccination rates “It’s pushing the false narrative that the pandemic is over.”

This is combined with very different situations in countries where vaccination and testing levels are still low, “which creates the ideal conditions for new variants of the coronavirus to emerge,” said the Ethiopian expert.

In this sense, Tedros recalled that 116 countries are at risk of not reaching the global goal that 70% of humanity has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the middle of the year, the goal that experts consider necessary to achieve herd immunity.

“We urgently need support for political leaders to accelerate the distribution of vaccines”indicated the head of the WHO.

Tedros reiterated his call for the international community, especially the developed economies, to donate 16,000 million dollars this year for the ACT Accelerator, the program with which the WHO and other agencies finance the distribution of vaccines, treatments, tests and other tools against COVID-19.

He also called for support for models such as the technology transfer center created in South Africa (which he visited last week), with which it is sought that developing countries also achieve vaccines based on the new “messenger RNA” technique, which has been shown to be highly effective in defending against coronavirus.