Geneva/New York, January 18 – High-income countries appeared to have reneged on their promises for fair and equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines when they signed bilateral deals with profit-seeking drugmakers, the World Health Organization said, warning that such practices would amount to a moral failure under the pandemic that has killed over 2 million people worldwide.
“I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.,” WHO General Director Tedros Adhamon Ghebreyesus said in a forceful speech to a WHO Executive Board meeting in Geneva.
He said more than 39 million doses of vaccine have been administered so far in at least 49 higher-income countries, but just 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country.
“Not 25 million (doses); not 25 thousand; just 25,” he said.
“But we now face the real danger that even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots,” he said. “It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first.
But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.”
He urged governments to work as a global family to prioritize those most at risks of severe diseases and deaths from Covid-19 in all countries and cooperate with WHO’s nine-month-old programs known as ACT Accelerator and COVAX for a fair and equitable distribution of the vaccines.
We have secured 2 billion doses from five producers, with options on more than 1 billion more doses, and we aim to start deliveries in February,” he said.
“Even as they speak the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral deals, going around COVAX, driving up prices and attempting to jump to the front of the queue. This is wrong.”
WHO said 44 bilateral deals were signed last year, and at least 12 have already been signed so far in 2021.
“The situation is compounded by the fact that most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries where the profits are highest, rather than submitting full dossiers to WHO,” the WHO chief said. “This could delay COVAX deliveries and create exactly the scenario COVAX was designed to avoid, with hoarding, a chaotic market, an uncoordinated response, and continued social and economic disruption. Not only does this me-first approach leave the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people at risk, it’s also self-defeating.”
“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering.”
The WHO chief called (1) on countries that have signed bilateral contracts – and control of supply – with drugmakers to be transparent on these contracts with COVAX, including on volumes, pricing and delivery dates; (2) on vaccine producers to provide WHO with full data for regulatory review in real time, to accelerate approvals, and (3) on all countries introducing vaccines to only use vaccines that meet rigorous international standards for safety, efficacy and quality, and to accelerate readiness for deployment.
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Geneva/Oslo/New York, December 18 – The World Health Organization said its global initiative known as COVAX to ensure rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries has obtained access to 2 billion doses from drug makers and is planning to distribute the shots in the first quarter of next year.
A total of 92 low- and middle-income countries will receive 1.3 billion of the total 2 billon doses. The distribution will be contingent upon regulatory approvals and readiness to distribute in the 190 countries. WHO said the 2 billion doses are still under development and the agreement it obtained from the drug makers is the “clearest pathway yet to end the acute phase of the pandemic by protecting the most vulnerable populations around the world.”
“This commitment is evidence that the world learned an important lesson from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Our research and development efforts have begun to pay off. We now have safe and effective vaccines that can protect against Covid-19 and a clear pathway to securing 2 billion doses for the populations at greatest risk all around the world,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
“Securing the right of first refusal of successful vaccine production as part of R&D arrangements has helped guarantee equitable access to vaccines, a founding principle of CEPI. The challenge of delivering the vaccines that have demonstrated success, of completing the development of other promising vaccine candidates to further increase supply, and of ending the acute phase of the pandemic, lies ahead of us.”
“The arrival of vaccines is giving all of us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO. “But we will only truly end the pandemic if we end it everywhere at the same time, which means it’s essential to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries. And we must remember that vaccines will complement, but not replace, the many other tools we have in our toolbox to stop transmission and save lives. We must continue to use all of them.”
WHO said the new deals just announced included the signing of advance purchase agreements with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses of the Janssen candidate, which is currently being investigated as a single dose vaccine.
These deals are in addition to existing agreements COVAX has with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 200 million doses – with options for up to 900 million doses more – of either the AstraZeneca/Oxford or Novavax candidates, as well as a statement of intent for 200 million doses of the Sanofi/GSK vaccine candidate.
In addition to this, COVAX also has – through R&D partnership agreements – first right of refusal in 2021 to access potentially more than one billion doses (based on current estimates from the manufacturing processes under development) that will be produced, subject to technical success and regulatory approval, by candidates in the COVAX R&D Portfolio
WHO said the COVAX Facility currently has 190 participating economies – 98 higher-income economies and 92 low- and middle-income economies eligible to have their participation in the Facility supported via the financing mechanism known as the Gavi COVAX AMC.
Of the 92 economies eligible to be supported by the COVAX AMC, 86 have now submitted detailed vaccine requests, offering the clearest picture yet on actual global demand for COVID-19 vaccines.
The health organization said for COVAX to meet its ambitious goals it needs to raise an additional $6.8 billion in 2021 – $800 million for research and development, at least $4.6 billion for the COVAX AMC and $1.4 billion for delivery support.
Support for the COVAX AMC will be critical to ensuring ability to pay is not a barrier to access. Thanks to the generous support of sovereign, private sector, and philanthropic donors, the AMC has met its urgent 2020 fundraising target of $2 billion, but at least $4.6 billion more is needed in 2021 to procure doses of successful candidates as they come through the portfolio.
Note from WHO about COVAX:
COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by CEPI, Gavi and WHO – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.
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Funding for community programmes, engaging youth in solutions to address COVID-19, and convening Global Youth Summit are key features of this new mobilization
Following is a press release from WHO
Geneva, 14 December – A new ground-breaking global youth mobilization was launched today to invest in and scale up youth-led solutions and engagements in response to COVID-19. The initiative was launched by an alliance of the world’s largest youth movements and organizations, together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Foundation.
The “Global Youth Mobilization for Generation Disrupted” is being led by the Big 6 Youth Organizations (Young Men’s Christian Association, YMCA; World Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA; World Organization of the Scout Movement; World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC; and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award), which together actively involve more than 250 million young people, and aims to support young people to engage in and design efforts to turn around the impact of the pandemic.
The Global Youth Mobilization will feature the convening of a Global Youth Summit in April 2021, and a fund of US $5 million to support local and national youth organizations, including grants for youth-led solutions and an accelerator programme to scale up existing response efforts.
The leadership of the WHO, Big 6 and youth organizations around the world are calling on governments, businesses and policy makers to back the Global Youth Mobilization effort and commit to investing in the future of young people. These measures will directly support young people engaged at the grassroots level to tackle some of the most pressing health and societal challenges resulting from the pandemic.
“WHO is honoured to join this truly exciting andpowerful global movement to mobilize and empower youth worldwide to be the driving force of the recovery to COVID-19,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Joining forces with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation provides WHO and the world a unique opportunity to learn from hundreds of millions of young people and be guided by their sustainable solutions to help communities build back better from the pandemic.”
While the direct health impacts of the pandemic on young people have been generally less severe, they are disproportionately affected by the long-lasting consequences of the pandemic. Such effects include disruptions to education, economic uncertainty, loss or lack of employment opportunities, impacts on physical and mental health, and trauma from domestic violence. For example, mental anxiety brought on by COVID-19 has been identified in nearly 90 per cent of young people; more than 1 billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; and 1 in 6 young people worldwide have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
At the same time, young people are also driving change and implementing solutions in response to COVID-19 by taking action through community-based interventions and voluntary service, such as acting as first responders and delivering food and supplies to those in need. The Global Youth Mobilization will draw attention to the urgent need for solutions to support young people, and to highlight the critical leadership role young people are playing in their communities to counter the effects of the pandemic.
“We are proud to team up with the WHO to provide opportunities and funding to help millions of young people across the globe to respond to local challenges related to COVID-19 in their communities,” said the leadership of the Big 6 in a joint statement. “The mobilization will provide direct financial and programmatic support to youth organizations at the national and international level. We believe that young people have the solutions to solve their own problems, and by providing a global youth platform, combined with national activation for youth projects, we can unleash the skills, enthusiasm and desire for young people to be a force for good in their communities.”
Supported by the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO and powered by the United Nations Foundation, the Global Youth Mobilization features a strategic partnership with the WHO and its newly launched Youth Council. It will involve other United Nations agencies, as well as a number of high-profile global partners, brands, and advocates, from FIFA to YOUNGA by BridgingTheGap Ventures, and the creation of a youth council of social media influencers, including the Influential platform. The initiative, developed in consultation with young people from across the globe, will be youth-led, community-driven, evidence-based, and inclusive of diverse communities rooted in meaningful youth participation and engagement.
In response to the unique challenges facing young people today, and to coincide with the launch of the Global Youth Mobilization, the Big 6 have also published a new policy paper: ‘Young People Championing Post-Pandemic Futures’. The paper is a joint call to action on behalf of 250 million children and young people that make up the Big 6 Youth Organizations and includes recommendations concerning education, employment, mental health and digital inclusion. Read the full report and calls to action at bigsix.org.
About the World Health Organization The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 149 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing. For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitch.
About the United Nations Foundation The United Nations Foundation brings together ideas, people, and resources to help the United Nations drive global progress and tackle urgent problems. Our hallmark is to collaborate for lasting change and innovate to address humanity’s greatest challenges. Learn more at www.unfoundation.org
About the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund To support the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners in their global response to COVID-19, the United Nations Foundation helped launch the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which has raised more than $238 million for lifesaving work around the world to prevent, detect, and respond to COVID-19. Learn more about the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO, powered by the United Nations Foundation at www.covid19responsefund.org.
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Geneve/New York, December 8 – The World Health Organization has launched a global campaign to support over 100 million tobacco users who have tried to quit because they are at higher risk of catching Covid-19.
The year-long global campaign for World No Tobacco Day 2021 – “Commit to Quit” was launched with a new WHO Quit Challenge on WhatsApp and the publication “More than 100 reasons to quit tobacco” were being released to mark the start of the campaign.
“Smoking kills 8 million people a year, but if users need more motivation to kick the habit, the pandemic provides the right incentive,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
An estimated 780 million tobacco users around the world said they wanted to quit but only 30 per cent of them have had access to health services and resources that can help them to do so.
When the pandemic struck in early 2020, WHO released a scientific brief warning that tobacco users were at higher risk of developing severe disease and death from Covid-19. The brief also warned that tobacco represented a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes, and people living with those conditions are more vulnerable to Covid-19.
“Millions of people worldwide want to quit tobacco – we must seize this opportunity and invest in services to help them be successful, while we urge everyone to divest from the tobacco industry and their interests,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.
The international health organization said it is working to create digital communities where people can find social support they need to quit using tobacco and the focus will be on countries with huge population that are tobacco users. WHO said it has received support for its initiative from private sector companies such as Allen Carr’s Easyway, Amazon Web Services, Cipla, Facebook and WhatsApp, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Praekelt, and Soul Machines.
WHO has called on all governments to ensure their citizens have access to brief advice, toll-free quit lines, mobile and digital cessation services, nicotine replacement therapies and other tools that are proven to help people quit. Strong cessation services improve health, save lives and save money.
The “Commit To Quit” 2021 campaign is focused on the following countries: Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, Germany, Nigeria, Brazil, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Suriname, Turkey, Russia, Vietnam, Mexico, the United States and Ukraine. (united nations correspondent journalists – united nations journalism articles)
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New York/Geneva/Atlanta, November 12 – Measles claimed 207,500 lives in 2019, prompting the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to warn that more people would die of the disease as attention shifted to Covid-19 causing a pause in measles vaccination campaigns.
The health authorities said over 94 million people, as of November 2020, were at risk of missing vaccines because measles campaigns have been interrupted in 26 countries, with many of them experiencing cases of measles outbreaks. They said the campaigns, after an initial delay, have resumed in these countries: Brazil, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines and Somalia.
WHO and the Atlanta-based CDC said measles cases worldwide increased to 869,770 in 2019, the highest number reported since 1996. They said global measles deaths climbed nearly 50 percent since 2016, claiming an estimated 207,500 lives in 2019 alone.
“We know how to prevent measles outbreaks and deaths,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “These data send a clear message that we are failing to protect children from measles in every region of the world. We must collectively work to support countries and engage communities to reach everyone, everywhere with measles vaccine and stop this deadly virus.”
“Before there was a coronavirus crisis, the world was grappling with a measles crisis, and it has not gone away,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “While health systems are strained by the Covid-19 pandemic, we must not allow our fight against one deadly disease to come at the expense of our fight against another. This means ensuring we have the resources to continue immunization campaigns for all vaccine-preventable diseases, even as we address the growing Covid-19 pandemic.”
New York, November 16 – The US drug maker Moderna has joined the team Pfizer-BioNTech to claim that their Covid-19 vaccines have successfully passed trials and are over 90-per-cent effective, leading a pack of some other 50 vaccine candidates in the global race to stop the pandemic that has killed over 1.2 million people and infected 53 million others.
Moderna said its vaccine met the required three-trial phases and is 94.5 per cent effective a week after Pfizer announced its own vaccine. Large pharmaceutical companies in Australia, China, the United Kingdom, India and Russia are also working on their vaccines.
Since Pfizer announced its promising drug on November 11, news reports said the United States has purchased 100 million doses with an option to buy 500 million more dozes, the United Kingdom has bought 40 million doses and the European Union has bought 200 million with an option for another 100 million.
Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has called the vaccine “the greatest medical advance” in the last 100 years while his counterpart at BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, said his company plans to increase the production of up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021 if it has obtained authorization to move forward in order to meet the urgent demands by millions of people around the world.
“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen,” Bourla told the US TV network CNBC November 9. “We have already signed contracts with multiple governments in the world and they have placed orders.”
Sahin revealed that BioNTech used a new but not yet approved technology called messenger RNA, or mRNA, to spark an immune response in people who are vaccinated.
BioNTech and Pfizer are asking the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize emergency use of the vaccine.
While news of the promising Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was announced and a second wave of coronavirus was hitting several European countries and the US, the WHO in Geneva resumed its virtual 73rd World Health Assembly to recognize the dedication and sacrifice of the millions of health and care workers at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic. It unanimously designated 2021 as the International Year of Health and Care Workers (YHCW).
The WHO also called for “Open Science,” describing it as a movement aimed at making the scientific process at the time of severe health crises more transparent and inclusive. It called for authoritative scientific information and research to be made freely available, to accelerate research into an effective vaccine against Covid-19, help counter misinformation, and “unlock the full potential of science”.
Tedros Ghebreyesus Adhanom, the WHO chief, in October joined human rights chief Michelle Bachelet and Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UN Scientific, Cultural and Educational agency (UNESCO) to launch Open Science as a fundamental matter of human rights and called for cutting-edge technologies and discoveries to be available for those who need them most.
News reports said the US government has planned to supply $1.95 billion for production and delivery costs for the first 100 million doses upon authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
US President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to invest $25 billion to manufacture and distribute vaccines.
“It’s important to understand that the end of the battle against Covid-19 is still months away,” Biden said and reminded Americans to wear masks, keep social distancing and maintain measures to protect themselves. “Even if some Americans are vaccinated later this year, it will be many more months before there is widespread vaccination in this country.”
Geneva/New York, November 9 – The World Health Organization said only “science, solutions and solidarity” can help the world fight Covid-19, which has already infected some 50 million people and killed over 1.2 million but its long-term effects are still not known.
“No one knows the long-term effects of this virus on the human body, or on the type of world our children and grandchildren will inherit,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the resumed 73rd World Health Assembly in Geneva as a second wave of cases was hitting many countries and lockdowns were reinstated, particularly in some countries in Europe and the Americas.
“We might be tired of Covid-19 but it is not tired of us,” he said. “We cannot negotiate with it, nor close our eyes and hope it goes away. It pays no heed to political rhetoric or conspiracy theories. Our only hope is science, solutions and solidarity. That is what WHO has been doing since the beginning. “
The WHO leader said the organization has relied on sciences by bringing together thousands of experts to analyze ever-growing evidence, research and work out roadmaps to fill gaps in the knowledge of Covid-19. WHO also has sent over 285 million essential medical products to 168 countries and territories as they were fighting the pandemic and set up an online learning platform in 41 languages to help train health care providers and all other users.
On November 6, the WHO and UNICEF appealed for $655 million and urgent action to try to avert new polio and measles epidemics as the Covid-19 pandemic caused lockdowns and prevented access to immunization services in some of the poorest countries in the world.
The WHO and UNICEF said vaccination campaigns for polio and measles, two major diseases affecting children, have had to pause in order to protect health workers and communities from Covid-19 infections and while Covid-19 protection measures were being put into place. Such a situation has resulted in a drop of as much as 50 per cent in polio and measles vaccination campaigns.
“The Covid-19 pandemic hurt momentum as polio and immunization efforts were suspended,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “This put children, especially in high-risk areas, more vulnerable to killer diseases like polio, measles and pneumonia.”
“And now we’re starting to see outbreaks of these diseases. We need to turn the tide quickly and ensure no child is left behind. Today, WHO and UNICEF are jointly launching an emergency appeal to rapidly boost measles and polio vaccination.”
The WHO leader said the drive to prevent new polio and measles epidemics is backed by a unique partnership between WHO, UNICEF, Rotary, CDC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, which is a global immunization program.
The new funding of $655 million – $400 for polio and $255 for measles – is needed to address the severe immunity gaps in middle-income countries that are not eligible under the Gavi assistance program.
Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, said that while the world is focused on fighting the pandemic it should not neglect the fight against other diseases.
“Addressing the global Covid-19 pandemic is critical. However, other deadly diseases also threaten the lives of millions of children in some of the poorest areas of the world. That is why today we are urgently calling for global action from country leaders, donors and partners,” she said.
“We need additional financial resources to safely resume vaccination campaigns and prioritize immunization systems that are critical to protect children and avert other epidemics besides Covid-19.” Respond to eme
Highlights: Intergovernmental Council on Pandemic Prevention; Addressing risk drivers including deforestation & wildlife trade; Tax high pandemic-risk activities 540,000 – 850,000 unknown viruses in nature could still infect people; More frequent, deadly and costly pandemics forecast; Current economic impacts are 100 times the estimated cost of prevention
Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns a major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts from around the world.
Convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for an urgent virtual workshop about the links between degradation of nature and increasing pandemic risks, the experts agree that escaping the era of pandemics is possible, but that this will require a seismic shift in approach from reaction to prevention.
COVID-19 is at least the sixth global health pandemic since the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, and although it has its origins in microbes carried by animals, like all pandemics its emergence has been entirely driven by human activities, says the report released on Thursday. It is estimated that another 1.7 million currently ‘undiscovered’ viruses exist in mammals and birds – of which up to 850,000 could have the ability to infect people.
“There is no great mystery about the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic – or of any modern pandemic”, said Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance and Chair of the IPBES workshop. “The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment. Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. This is the path to pandemics.”
Pandemic risk can be significantly lowered by reducing the human activities that drive the loss of biodiversity, by greater conservation of protected areas, and through measures that reduce unsustainable exploitation of high biodiversity regions. This will reduce wildlife-livestock-human contact and help prevent the spillover of new diseases, says the report.
“The overwhelming scientific evidence points to a very positive conclusion,” said Dr. Daszak. “We have the increasing ability to prevent pandemics – but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability. Our approach has effectively stagnated – we still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics. We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires a much greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction.”
“The fact that human activity has been able to so fundamentally change our natural environment need not always be a negative outcome. It also provides convincing proof of our power to drive the change needed to reduce the risk of future pandemics – while simultaneously benefiting conservation and reducing climate change.”
The report says that relying on responses to diseases after their emergence, such as public health measures and technological solutions, in particular the rapid design and distribution of new vaccines and therapeutics, is a “slow and uncertain path”, underscoring both the widespread human suffering and the tens of billions of dollars in annual economic damage to the global economy of reacting to pandemics.
Pointing to the likely cost of COVID-19 of $8-16 trillion globally by July 2020, it is further estimated that costs in the United States alone may reach as high as $16 trillion by the 4th quarter of 2021. The experts estimate the cost of reducing risks to prevent pandemics to be 100 times less than the cost of responding to such pandemics, “providing strong economic incentives for transformative change.”
The report also offers a number of policy options that would help to reduce and address pandemic risk. Among these are:
• Launching a high-level intergovernmental council on pandemic prevention to provide decision-makers with the best science and evidence on emerging diseases; predict high-risk areas; evaluate the economic impact of potential pandemics and to highlight research gaps. Such a council could also coordinate the design of a global monitoring framework. • Countries setting mutually-agreed goals or targets within the framework of an international accord or agreement – with clear benefits for people, animals and the environment. • Institutionalizing the ‘One Health’ approach in national governments to build pandemic preparedness, enhance pandemic prevention programs, and to investigate and control outbreaks across sectors. • Developing and incorporating pandemic and emerging disease risk health impact assessments in major development and land-use projects, while reforming financial aid for land-use so that benefits and risks to biodiversity and health are recognized and explicitly targeted. • Ensuring that the economic cost of pandemics is factored into consumption, production, and government policies and budgets. • Enabling changes to reduce the types of consumption, globalized agricultural expansion and trade that have led to pandemics – this could include taxes or levies on meat consumption, livestock production and other forms of high pandemic-risk activities. • Reducing zoonotic disease risks in the international wildlife trade through a new intergovernmental ‘health and trade’ partnership; reducing or removing high disease-risk species in the wildlife trade; enhancing law enforcement in all aspects of the illegal wildlife trade and improving community education in disease hotspots about the health risks of wildlife trade. • Valuing Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ engagement and knowledge in pandemic prevention programs, achieving greater food security, and reducing consumption of wildlife. • Closing critical knowledge gaps such as those about key risk behaviors, the relative importance of illegal, unregulated, and the legal and regulated wildlife trade in disease risk, and improving understanding of the relationship between ecosystem degradation and restoration, landscape structure and the risk of disease emergence.
Speaking about the workshop report, Dr. Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of IPBES said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of science and expertise to inform policy and decision-making. Although it is not one of the typical IPBES intergovernmental assessments reports, this is an extraordinary peer-reviewed expert publication, representing the perspectives of some of the world’s leading scientists, with the most up-to-date evidence and produced under significant time constraints. We congratulate Dr. Daszak and the other authors of this workshop report and thank them for this vital contribution to our understanding of the emergence of pandemics and options for controlling and preventing future outbreaks. This will inform a number of IPBES assessments already underway, in addition to offering decision-makers new insights into pandemic risk reduction and options for prevention.” – ENDS – For enquiries and interviews please contact: The IPBES Media Team media@ipbes.net +1-416-878-8712 or +49-174-2538-2223 www.ipbes.net Note to Editors: The Executive Summary of the report is available under the same embargo here: http://bit.ly/PandemicEmbargoed The full report will be published on Thursday, 29 October 2020. The report, its recommendations and conclusions have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by the member States of IPBES – it represents the expertise and perspectives of the experts who participated in the workshop, listed here in full: https://ipbes.net/biodiversity-pandemics-participants The IPBES workshop report is one of the most scientifically robust examinations of the evidence and knowledge about links between pandemic risk and nature since the COVID pandemic began – with contributions from leading experts in fields as diverse as epidemiology, zoology, public health, disease ecology, comparative pathology, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, wildlife health, mathematical modelling, economics, law and public policy. The report is also strongly scientifically substantiated, with more than 600 cited sources – more than 200 of which are from 2020 and 2019 – which offers decision-makers a valuable analytical snap-shot of the most up-to-date data currently available. 17 of the 22 experts were nominated by Governments and organizations following a call for nominations; 5 experts were added from the ongoing IPBES assessment of the sustainable use of wild species, the assessment on values and the assessment of invasive alien species, as well as experts assisting with the scoping of the IPBES nexus assessment and transformative change assessments. Resource persons who contributed information but were not authors of the report included experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Often described as the “IPCC for biodiversity”, IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more than 130 member Governments. Established by Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural assets. For more information about IPBES and its assessments visit www.ipbes.net
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, 53 113 Bonn, Germany secretariat@ipbes.net • www.ipbes.net
New York, October 5 – The pandemic has caused enormous damage to people’s mental health but the mental health services, which are chronically underfunded, have not been able to meet the challenge in a majority of 130 countries surveyed, the World Health Organization said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide while the demand for mental health is increasing,” the survey said, providing the first global data on mental illnesses inflicted by the pandemic, the lack of access to mental health services and the urgent need to invest on those services.
WHO published the survey, which was conducted from June to August 2020, while it is preparing to launch a global advocacy event on October 10 known as “WHO’s Big Event for Mental Health” with an assist from world leaders, celebrities and advocates to call for increased mental health investments in the wake of the pandemic.
The survey said bereavement, isolation, loss of income and fear are triggering mental health conditions or exacerbating existing ones.
“Many people may be facing increased levels of alcohol and drug use, insomnia, and anxiety. Meanwhile, COVID-19 itself can lead to neurological and mental complications, such as delirium, agitation, and stroke,” the survey said. “People with pre-existing mental, neurological or substance use disorders are also more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection ̶ they may stand a higher risk of severe outcomes and even death.”
“Good mental health is absolutely fundamental to overall health and well-being,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “COVID-19 has interrupted essential mental health services around the world just when they’re needed most. World leaders must move fast and decisively to invest more in life-saving mental health programs during the pandemic and beyond.”
The survey said over 60 per cent of countries surveyed reported disruptions to mental health services for vulnerable people, including children and adolescents (72 per cent), older adults (70 per cent), and women requiring antenatal or postnatal services (61 per cent).
It said 67 per cent of countries surveyed reported disruptions to counseling and psychotherapy; 65 per cent to critical harm reduction services; and 45 per cent to opioid agonist maintenance treatment for opioid dependence. Over a third of countries reported disruptions to emergency interventions and access for medications for mental, neurological and substance use disorders.
Seventy per cent of countries have adopted telemedicine or teletherapy to overcome disruptions to in-person services, but there are significant disparities in the uptake of these interventions. More than 80 per cent of high-income countries reported deploying telemedicine and teletherapy to bridge gaps in mental health, compared with less than 50 per cent of low-income countries.
New York, September 9 – Rich countries have adopted economic stimulus packages worth more than $10 trillion to protect their own populations from the coronavirus while the weakest and poorest countries in the world with much less financial resources are those that will be the worst affected by the virus, a United Nations official warned the UN Security Council in a meeting to review the global efforts against the pandemic.
“The G20 and OECD countries have, rightly, adopted domestic economic stimulus measures amounting to more than $10 trillion to protect their own populations from the worst effects of the pandemic and lockdown. That amounts to more than 10 per cent of global income,” said Mark Lowcock, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. He referred to the world’s 20 largest economies and banking institutions and high-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
“Low income and fragile countries do not have the resources, capacity or access to markets to do the same thing. So they are reliant on support from elsewhere, especially the international financial institutions.”
Lowcock said of the $143 billion promised by the international financial institutions only 7 per cent so far have been committed to low income countries, representing little more than 2 per cent of their combined GDPs.
“To speak plainly, woefully inadequate economic and political action (to support poor countries) will lead to greater instability and conflicts in the coming years. More crises will be on this Security Council’s agenda,” Lowcock said. “The burden of my advice to you today is that while we may have been surprised by the virus, we cannot say the same of the security and humanitarian crises that most certainly lay ahead if we don’t change course.”
Lowcock began his briefing to the 15-nation council by saying that there are now growing reasons to believe that in the medium and longer term the “weakest, most fragile and conflict-affected countries will be those worst affected by COVID-19.”
“The virus is everywhere,” he said, pointing out that there are now more than 26 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and more than 860,000 deaths with roughly a third of the cases and deaths are in countries affected by humanitarian or refugee crisis or those with high levels of vulnerability.
The full extent of the pandemic remains unknown while testing levels are very low and those infected by the virus may be reluctant to seek help to avoid being quarantined or they do not trust the medical services offered to them, he said.
The UN has raised around $2.4 billion since March when its first launched an appeal for funds to fight the coronavirus from generous donors and is now seeking $10 billion to cover activities in the coming six months to support 250 million people in 63 countries, Lowcock said.
He said the money already received was meant to assist poor countries as well as to provide personal protective equipment, including masks, gloves and gowns to 730,000 health workers; information on the virus and how to protect yourself from it to more than a billion people in nearly 60 countries; to reach nearly 100 million children with distance learning and provide tens of millions of people with soap, detergent and other improvements to water and sanitation systems.
Lowcock said the indirect effects of Covid-19 are mostly on the global economy but the most fragile economies are hit harder by weakened commodity prices, declining remittances and trade disruptions. Covid-19 also hurt public services, especially health and education across the world but the impacts are harder for poor countries. He said any reduction in the availability of basic health services would hurt poor countries more, citing immunization and food security as two obvious examples.
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