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WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 5:01
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 4 DECEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"This week, I was pleased to see that the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency gave an emergency authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for rollout. Just like with the UK’s findings on dexamethasone in the summer, this is an important scientific step for the world as vaccines will be critical in the battle against COVID-19. Progress on vaccines gives us all a lift and we can all start to see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, WHO is concerned that there is a growing perception that the pandemic is over. The truth is that at present, many places are witnessing very high transmission of the virus, which is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health workers."
3. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"We know it’s been a hard year and people are tired, but in hospitals that are running at, or over, capacity; it’s the hardest it can possibly be. My personal ask to people is simple, please be careful, think of health workers and act for the greater good, because it will save lives and livelihoods."
5. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"But again, I would like to say, vaccines do not equal zero COVID. Vaccines and vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the toolkit that we have. But by themselves they will not do the job. And therefore, we have to add vaccines into an existing public health strategy. We will have to continue to work on managing our personal behavior or hygiene. And in many cases, we need to recognize that the vaccine will not be with everyone early next year."
7. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"I think the next six months are going to be difficult, but hopeful. And I think they're going to be difficult for a number of reasons, because we need to have the patience, we need to put in the work to keep ourselves safe and to keep our loved ones safe."
9. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"We also have to be extremely clear at this moment with countries that currently have high levels of transmission, at the end of this year, or up to the end of this year, are going to have to sustain very strong control measures. Or, this disease will blow out of control in some of those environments and they will risk ongoing epidemic yo-yo situation through 2021. There needs to be an aggressive scale-up of public health surveillance and control measures in countries that are currently experiencing very high incidence because you got to get transmission down to a manageable level and then the vaccines will come in and make a huge difference quickly."
11. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"There's a difference between certifying vaccination within a country where people are issued with a proof of vaccination or a certificate of vaccination, which children all have, which is a way in which people have a record of the vaccination. So, recording vaccination. That is very different than the requirement for vaccination that may occur if someone is traveling internationally. So, we have to have a very important debate about the issue of certification of vaccination, and then the nature of discussion around mandatory vaccination."
13. Wide shot, podium with speakers in press room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist:
"When we talk about vaccines having been accelerated, I think again, important to explain to people how we've been able to do that. It's not by skipping or taking shortcuts in the scientific process of vaccine development. All of these vaccines have still gone through preclinical Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. Timelines were accelerated by overlapping Phase I and II by regulatory agencies willing to be flexible looking at submissions. So, even before the Phase I is complete, they're already ready if everything goes well to approve the Phase II. That doesn't normally happen with vaccine or drug development. And most importantly, the manufacturing at scale, which was invested. Investments were made well before we will know if any of these vaccines are safe and effective. And because of that, you're able to produce doses in the millions at a time soon after the Phase III results.
15. Med shot, WHO logo
WHO warned on Friday (4 Dec) that those countries with current high levels of coronavirus transmission, “are going to have to sustain very strong control measures.” Otherwise, the COVID-19 “will blow out of control” in some countries and they will risk “ongoing epidemic yo-yo situation through 2021.”
At the regular COVID-19 press briefing in Geneva, WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization is concerned with “a growing perception that the pandemic is over,” following the news of imminent rollout of the vaccine against COVID-19.
"We know it’s been a hard year and people are tired,” Dr Tedros said, “but in hospitals that are running at, or over, capacity; it’s the hardest it can possibly be. My personal ask to people is simple, please be careful, think of health workers and act for the greater good, because it will save lives and livelihoods."
Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme also warned that “vaccines do not equal zero COVID.”
He said “vaccines and vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the toolkit that we have. But by themselves they will not do the job. And therefore, we have to add vaccines into an existing public health strategy. We will have to continue to work on managing our personal behavior or hygiene. And in many cases, we need to recognize that the vaccine will not be with everyone early next year."
For her part, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Health Emergencies Programme’s COVID-19 Technical lead said “the next six months are going to be difficult, but hopeful. And I think they're going to be difficult for a number of reasons, because we need to have the patience, we need to put in the work to keep ourselves safe and to keep our loved ones safe."
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