WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
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STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 4:47
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 AUGUST 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"To overcome these fragile times we must do better at sharing resources and health tools. Our mutual resilience is only as strong as our weakest bond. Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months."
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"I was stunned by the news that J&J vaccines filled and finished in South Africa are leaving the continent and going to Europe, where virtually all adults have been offered vaccines at this point. We urge J&J to urgently prioritize distribution of their vaccines to Africa before considering supplies to rich countries that already have sufficient access."
5. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"The people of Afghanistan are also facing an enormous challenge. In the midst of a pandemic, we’re extremely concerned by the large displacement of people and increasing cases of diarrhoea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, probable cases of COVID-19 and reproductive health complications. There is an immediate need to ensure sustained humanitarian access, and continuity of health services across the country, with a focus on ensuring women and girls have access to female health workers. We are particularly concerned about the health and wellbeing of woman and girls. I call on the international community and all actors to prioritise their access to all health services and to safeguard their futures."
7. Wide shot, press briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"This week, a new case of Ebola was identified in Côte d’Ivoire, marking the third outbreak of Ebola this year. The patient confirmed with the Ebola virus had travelled to Abidjan by road from Guinea, putting both countries on an emergency footing. Thousands of doses of Ebola vaccines were sent from Guinea to Côte d’Ivoire and ring vaccination of high-risk contacts has started."
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist:
"Because Delta is so much more transmissible we do see these break-through infections occurring in people who have received both vaccines. But if you look at the outcomes that we are really concerned about, which is severe disease, hospitalisation and death, those are clearly being prevented by the vaccines and that is true for Delta as well."
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist:
"We believe clearly that the data does not indicate that boosters are needed and we need to know which groups, at what period after the vaccination and which particular vaccines people have received in their primary course."
13. Wide shot, press briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Joachim Hombach, Executive Secretary, WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization:
"No vaccine is 100 per cent effective and if you have high vaccination coverage you will of course always have cases, break-through infections, or what we also call primary failures, where the vaccine actually doesn't work. That is normal. That occurs and the proportion to which this happens may differ from vaccine to vaccine."
15. Wide shot, press briefing room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Joachim Hombach, Executive Secretary, WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization:
"The analysis is extremely complicated because obviously we have not many studies, we have different vaccines, we have the emergence of variants and we have different population groups. But what is clear is that we do not have sufficient information and the data are not suggestive that at that point in time we need booster vaccinations."
17. Wide shot, press briefing room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan EXD, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"I think though, regardless of what ultimately the science comes to an agreement regarding the length of protection or the increased benefit, marginal increase in benefits from having booster doses, the reality is right now today if we think about this in terms of an analogy: We're planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket. That's the reality."
STOYRLINE:
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity and if we don’t tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months."
Speaking to reporters in Geneva today (18 Aug), Dr Tedros said that he was “stunned by the news that J&J vaccines filled and finished in South Africa are leaving the continent and going to Europe, where virtually all adults have been offered vaccines at this point.”
WHO urged J&J to “urgently prioritize distribution of their vaccines to Africa before considering supplies to rich countries that already have sufficient access."
On Afghanistan, Dr Tedros said, “the people of Afghanistan are also facing an enormous challenge. In the midst of a pandemic, we’re extremely concerned by the large displacement of people and increasing cases of diarrhoea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, probable cases of COVID-19 and reproductive health complications.”
He continued, “There is an immediate need to ensure sustained humanitarian access, and continuity of health services across the country, with a focus on ensuring women and girls have access to female health workers.”
Dr Tedros added, “We are particularly concerned about the health and wellbeing of woman and girls. I call on the international community and all actors to prioritise their access to all health services and to safeguard their futures."
On Ebola, the WHO chief said, "This week, a new case of Ebola was identified in Côte d’Ivoire, marking the third outbreak of Ebola this year. The patient confirmed with the Ebola virus had travelled to Abidjan by road from Guinea, putting both countries on an emergency footing. Thousands of doses of Ebola vaccines were sent from Guinea to Côte d’Ivoire and ring vaccination of high-risk contacts has started."
WHO’s Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said, "Because Delta is so much more transmissible we do see these break-through infections occurring in people who have received both vaccines. But if you look at the outcomes that we are really concerned about, which is severe disease, hospitalisation and death, those are clearly being prevented by the vaccines and that is true for Delta as well."
She also said, “"We believe clearly that the data does not indicate that boosters are needed and we need to know which groups, at what period after the vaccination and which particular vaccines people have received in their primary course."
WHO’s Dr Joachim Hombach said, "No vaccine is 100 per cent effective and if you have high vaccination coverage you will of course always have cases, break-through infections, or what we also call primary failures, where the vaccine actually doesn't work. That is normal. That occurs and the proportion to which this happens may differ from vaccine to vaccine."
He also said, "The analysis is extremely complicated because obviously we have not many studies, we have different vaccines, we have the emergence of variants and we have different population groups. But what is clear is that we do not have sufficient information and the data are not suggestive that at that point in time we need booster vaccinations."
WHO’s Dr Mike Ryan also spoke to reporters. He said, "I think though, regardless of what ultimately the science comes to an agreement regarding the length of protection or the increased benefit, marginal increase in benefits from having booster doses, the reality is right now today if we think about this in terms of an analogy: We're planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket. That's the reality."