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STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 5:27
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 8 MARCH 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1.Med shot, WHO seal on a wall
2.Wide shot, press room podium
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"On the 5th of February, we started our daily press conferences, informing the world about the risks this new virus posed and the steps that governments and individuals needed to take to stay safe. We continued to warn that the world had a narrow window of opportunity to prepare for and prevent a potential pandemic. One of the things we still need to understand is why some countries acted on those warnings, while others were slower to react. In the following weeks, the number of affected countries and the number of cases globally grew rapidly, which led us to describe COVID-19 as a pandemic on the 11th of March last year. But we must be clear that that was not the moment at which we sounded the highest level of alarm. That moment was on the 30th of January. "
4.Wide shot, press room podium
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"We have come so far, we have suffered so much, and we have lost so many. We cannot – we must not – squander the progress we have made. We have the tools to control the pandemic, but we can only do it if we use them consistently and equitably. Science, solutions and solidarity remain our guide. There are no short cuts. "
6.Wide shot, press room podium
7.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
"About 70 percent of all health workers globally are women, and they have played a key role in delivering care and saving lives. But although they make up the majority of the global health workforce, women only hold 25 percent of leadership roles in health. That’s why in February, WHO launched the Gender Equal Health and Care Workforce Initiative, to increase the proportion of women in leadership in health and care. To promote equal pay; to protect women in health and care from sexual harassment and violence at work; and to ensure safe and decent working conditions for women health and care workers, including access to personal protective equipment and vaccines against COVID-19. "
8.Wide shot, press room podium
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Sarah Gilbert, Developer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, University of Oxford:
"To increase the amount of vaccine doses that can be delivered across the world, I encourage vaccine manufacturers to form new partnerships in diverse geographical locations to manufacture, fill and distribute vaccines that are already approved. We need to work together and use all available resources to do this. "
10.Wide shot, press room podium
11.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 Technical lead, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO: "We were doing our best to inform every day on the situation at hand, informing the world on what was known about this virus, the dangers of this virus, and saying from the start that this was a dangerous virus and that systems needed to be activated. And so we didn't just say that. We followed that up with action. We followed that up with a full strategic preparedness and response plan that was published four days after the alarm. This public health emergency of international concern was announced. And we worked with governments. We worked with countries. We worked with communities to make sure that those plans could be actioned and tailored in the appropriate way for countries around the world. "
12.Wide shot, press room podium
13.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
"It's very instructive because I think perception of risk is very much about the perspective you have, about how much risk you're at. Unfortunately, if you're in a valley and a dam burts, you know you're at risk and you take action. If you're standing on a mountain top, you don't feel the same level of risk until the waters rise. And I fear too many countries thought they were standing on a mountaintop watching the waters rise to consume and overwhelm others and what everyone didn't realize i s the waters rose to consume them. "
14.Wide shot, press room podium
15.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“If access to vaccine is iniquitous, then inequity and unfairness can be further branded into the system, if we continue to make decisions on what people can and can't do, where they can and can't go on the basis of being vaccinated when being vaccinated itself is not something that everyone has equal access to. "
16.Med shot, WHO seal on a wall
“We have the tools to control the pandemic, but we can only do it if we use them consistently and equitably. Science, solutions and solidarity remain our guide. There are no short cuts," said WHO’s chief, Dr Tedros at the regular press briefing on Monday in Geneva.
"We have come so far, we have suffered so much, and we have lost so many, Dr Tedros said. “We cannot – we must not – squander the progress we have made.”
He also said "about 70 percent of all health workers globally are women, and they have played a key role in delivering care and saving lives. But although they make up the majority of the global health workforce, women only hold 25 percent of leadership roles in health. That’s why in February, WHO launched the Gender Equal Health and Care Workforce Initiative, to increase the proportion of women in leadership in health and care. To promote equal pay; to protect women in health and care from sexual harassment and violence at work; and to ensure safe and decent working conditions for women health and care workers, including access to personal protective equipment and vaccines against COVID-19. "
Guest of the briefing, Oxford professor and developer of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Sarah Gilbert, said "to increase the amount of vaccine doses that can be delivered across the world, I encourage vaccine manufacturers to form new partnerships in diverse geographical locations to manufacture, fill and distribute vaccines that are already approved. We need to work together and use all available resources to do this. "
