“COVID19 is not the last pandemic that humanity is facing. In responding to this health crisis, we need to prepare for the next one. Let this international epidemic preparedness day give it the focus, attention and investment it deserves,” UN Secretary-General Guterres said in a tweet.
For the first time, International Epidemic Preparedness Day was celebrated last year on 27 December, when the UN and the World Health Organization agreed on the need to defend against epidemic preparedness and prevention.
At a press conference last week, the WHO Director-General warned that general booster programs for COVID-19 vaccines could prolong the pandemic and increase inequality,
“No country can step up its way out of a pandemic,” said the WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, spoke at the last press conference of the year in Geneva. โAnd boosters canโt be considered a ticket to continuing a planned celebration without the need for other precautions,โ he added.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group to Immunization Experts (SAGE) has published interim guidelines on booster doses, expressing concern that mass programs for countries that can afford them will exacerbate vaccine inequalities.
Tedros reported last year that in 2021, more people died from COVID-19 than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined in 2020.
The coronavirus killed 3.5 million people this year and still claims about 50,000 lives every week.
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page