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STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 04:19
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 DECEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
1. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"In the past few days, there have been reports of new variants of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Viruses mutate over time; that’s natural and expected. The UK has reported that this new variant transmits more easily but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality. WHO is working with scientists to understand how these genetic changes affect how the virus behaves. The bottom line is that we need to suppress transmission of all SARS-CoV-2 viruses as quickly as we can. The more we allow it to spread, the more opportunity it has to change."
3. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Now is the time to double down on the public health basics that have seen many countries suppress the virus effectively. There are a number of groups that continue to push a narrative that this virus only affects the old, and that with vaccines on the horizon we can relax. COVID-19 affects children and adults in a variety of ways, and it can attack every system in the body. And a growing number of people suffer with long-term consequences of the virus. This includes neurological complications for children and adults, which are still being researched."
5. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
"Although the pandemic has undoubtedly touched us all, its impact is being felt differently depending on who you are, where you live and how much money or power you have. Existing and growing inequalities have meant that around the world, those that already have the least have been hurt the most. And in its simplest, we have all realized that it is extremely expensive to be poor in a pandemic, whether you are a household or a country."
7. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
"Countries are now acting on a precautionary principle. They're taking the highest amount of precaution and therefore many countries have put in place some of precautionary travel restrictions while they look at the risk assessment around this virus. That is prudent. But it's also important that everyone recognize that this happens, these variants occur. Science and health authorities and governments are looking at that very carefully. They're taking care of citizens by being extremely cautious about any new variants and examining the potential impacts. But at this stage, we don't have evidence that this virus will change the severity, the diagnostics, or the value of vaccines going forward."
9. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
" In the situation in the UK, the reproduction number, this number, has increased from 1.1, meaning if I were infected, I would infect 1.1 person or just over one person. And that's important because it means it grows. It'll grow at a certain rate. If I infect, 1.5 people, I know that doesn't make sense because it's not, you can only infect a full person, but it means I can infect more people. And so that is a concern when the reproduction number increases, what we want to see happen is when you have intervention in place, it reduces."
11. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization (WHO):
" Now the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating at a much slower rate than the influenza virus. And so far, even though we've seen a number of changes, a number of mutations, none has made a significant impact on either the susceptibility of the virus to any of the currently used therapeutics drugs or the vaccines under development. And one hopes that that will continue to be the case, but this is why we have to continuously monitor what's happening to this virus."
13. Wide shot, WHO officials at press conference
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, today (21 Dec) said reports of new variants of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa and the United Kingdom, are “natural and expected,” adding that “there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality.”
Briefing journalists in Geneva, Dr Tedros said, “WHO is working with scientists to understand how these genetic changes affect how the virus behaves. The bottom line is that we need to suppress transmission of all SARS-CoV-2 viruses as quickly as we can. The more we allow it to spread, the more opportunity it has to change."
The WHO official said, "now is the time to double down on the public health basics that have seen many countries suppress the virus effectively.”
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Chief Achim Steiner said, the pandemic’s impact “is being felt differently depending on who you are, where you live and how much money or power you have.”
Steiner said, “existing and growing inequalities have meant that around the world, those that already have the least have been hurt the most. And in its simplest, we have all realized that it is extremely expensive to be poor in a pandemic, whether you are a household or a country. "
The Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Mike Ryan, said, “countries are now acting on a precautionary principle. They're taking the highest amount of precaution and therefore many countries have put in place some of precautionary travel restrictions while they look at the risk assessment around this virus. That is prudent. But it's also important that everyone recognize that this happens, these variants occur. Science and health authorities and governments are looking at that very carefully. They're taking care of citizens by being extremely cautious about any new variants and examining the potential impacts. But at this stage, we don't have evidence that this virus will change the severity, the diagnostics, or the value of vaccines going forward. "
WHO’s COVID-19 Technical Lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, said, “in the situation in the UK, the reproduction number, this number, has increased from 1.1, meaning if I were infected, I would infect 1.1 person or just over one person. And that's important because it means it grows. It'll grow at a certain rate. If I infect, 1.5 people, I know that doesn't make sense because it's not, you can only infect a full person, but it means I can infect more people. And so that is a concern when the reproduction number increases, what we want to see happen is when you have intervention in place, it reduces. "
For her part, WHO’s Chief Scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said, “the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating at a much slower rate than the influenza virus. And so far, even though we've seen a number of changes, a number of mutations, none has made a significant impact on either the susceptibility of the virus to any of the currently used therapeutics drugs or the vaccines under development. And one hopes that that will continue to be the case, but this is why we have to continuously monitor what's happening to this virus. "
