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WHO / WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY OPENING
STORY: WHO / WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY OPENING
TRT: 4:13
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24 MAY 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
FILE – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Aerial shot, WHO headquarters exterior
24 MAY 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"Almost 18 months into the defining health crisis of our age, the world remains in a very dangerous situation. As of today, more cases have been reported so far this year than in the whole of 2020. On current trends, the number of deaths will overtake last year’s total within the next three weeks."
4. Wide shot, Tedros addressing the World Health Assembly
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“No country should assume it is out of the woods, no matter its vaccination rate. So far, no variants have emerged that significantly undermine the efficacy of vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics. But there is no guarantee that will remain the case. This virus is changing constantly. Future changes could render our tools ineffective and drag us back to square one. We must be very clear: the pandemic is not over, and it will not be over until and unless transmission is controlled in every last country."
6. Med shot, Tedros addressing the World Health Assembly
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic. More than 75 per cent of all vaccines have been administered in just ten countries. There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world.”
8. Med shot, Tedros addressing the World Health Assembly
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So today, I am calling on Member States to support a massive push to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population of every country by September, and a “drive to December” to achieve our goal of vaccinating at least 30 percent by the end of the year. This is crucial to stop severe disease and death, keep our health workers safe, reopen our societies and economies.”
10. Wide shot, control room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"We cannot build a safer world from the top down; we must build from the ground up. Preparing for, preventing, detecting and responding rapidly to epidemics doesn’t start in Geneva, New York, or any of the world’s corridors of power."
12. Wide shot, Tedros addressing the World Health Assembly
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"We have come to a fork in the road. If we go on the same old way, we will get the same old result: a world that is unprepared, unsafe and unfair. Make no mistake: this will not be the last time the world faces the threat of pandemic. It is an evolutionary certainty that there will be another virus with the potential to be more transmissible and more deadly than this one. This is not the time for incremental improvements or tinkering at the edges. This is the moment for bold ideas, bold commitment and bold leadership; for doing things that have never been done before. We have a choice: between cooperation, competition or confrontation."
14. Wide shot, conference room
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the World Health Assembly today (24 May), "Almost 18 months into the defining health crisis of our age, the world remains in a very dangerous situation,” and described the ongoing vaccine crisis as a “scandalous inequity.”
Dr Tedros said more cases have been reported so far this year than in the “whole of 2020,” adding that with the current trends, “the number of deaths will overtake last year’s total within the next three weeks."
Dr Tedros said he was pleased that for three consecutive weeks there has been a downturn in the number of cases and deaths being reported, however he stressed that globally the world remained in a fragile situation. He added, “No country should assume it is out of the woods, no matter its vaccination rate. So far, no variants have emerged that significantly undermine the efficacy of vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics. But there is no guarantee that will remain the case. This virus is changing constantly. Future changes could render our tools ineffective and drag us back to square one. We must be very clear: the pandemic is not over, and it will not be over until and unless transmission is controlled in every last country."
The WHO Director-General said ongoing vaccine crisis is a “scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic.” He noted that more than 75 per cent of all vaccines have been administered in just ten countries. He said, “There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world.”
Dr Tedros said the the number of doses administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all health workers and older people, if they had been distributed equitably, putting the world in a much better situation.
The WHO chief called on Member States to support a massive push to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population of every country by September, and a ‘Drive to December’ aimed at vaccinating at least 30 per cent by the end of the year. To reach the September target, he said the world must vaccinate another 250 million more people in low- and middle-income countries in just four months. He said, “This is crucial to stop severe disease and death, keep our health workers safe, reopen our societies and economies.”
Dr Tedros underscored the role of vaccine manufacturers in ensuring any country that wants to share doses through COVAX can do it within days, not months. He called all manufacturers to give COVAX first right of refusal on new volume of vaccines, or to commit 50 per cent of their volumes to COVAX this year.
The WHO chief said many more doses are need fast and reminded that several manufacturers have reported their capacity to produce vaccines if the originator companies are willing to share licenses and technology.
Dr Tedros noted that there remains an 18.5 billion USD gap in the ACT Accelerator. He said, ultimately, the pandemic has shown clearly that in an emergency, low and lower-middle income countries cannot rely on imports from vaccine-producing countries. He welcomed the draft resolution on strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies that Member States will consider at the Assembly.
The WHO Director-General said the pandemic has been turbo-charged by division, inequity, and the historical neglect of investments in preparedness. He added that in the recovery, more must be done to address the vulnerabilities that allow outbreaks to become epidemics and epidemics to become pandemics.
He said, "We cannot build a safer world from the top down; we must build from the ground up. Preparing for, preventing, detecting and responding rapidly to epidemics doesn’t start in Geneva, New York, or any of the world’s corridors of power."
Dr Tedros told the Assembly, "We have come to a fork in the road. If we go on the same old way, we will get the same old result: a world that is unprepared, unsafe and unfair. Make no mistake: this will not be the last time the world faces the threat of pandemic. It is an evolutionary certainty that there will be another virus with the potential to be more transmissible and more deadly than this one. This is not the time for incremental improvements or tinkering at the edges. This is the moment for bold ideas, bold commitment and bold leadership; for doing things that have never been done before. We have a choice: between cooperation, competition or confrontation."
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