Yes, you read it right! The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, assured the world that the pandemic would end in 2022 while addressing the people on New Year.
Since 2020 the whole world has been waiting for things to go back to normal finally. From an economic backdrop and social distancing to deaths and fear of infection, covid-19 has hurled many problems in our way. With the claims of the pandemic to end this year, things can change. Although, for the task to be achieved, Tedros emphasized one condition.
Vaccination equity in the world
On the matter of ending the pandemic this year, he specified the vaccination inequity in the world as the countries hoarding vaccine amid rising cases, WHO chief further advised to narrow nationalism and stop vaccine hoarding. He stated “We need all countries to work together to reach the global target of vaccinating 70 percent of people in all countries by the middle of 2022,” He further added, “While no country is out of the woods from the pandemic, we have many new tools to prevent and treat COVID-19. The longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of this virus evolving in ways we can’t prevent or predict. If we end inequity, we end the pandemic,”
Establishment of a BioHub by WHO
While encountering inequity globally and hoarding of vaccination, the World Health Organization has come upon something big. The WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that to help prepare the world for future pandemics, the global health body has established a BioHub System for countries to share novel biological materials. For now, WHO has given the nod for emergency use of the ninth vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under a license from Novavax. The WHO chief remarked that the new vaccine is part of the COVAX portfolio and hoped it would play an essential role in achieving global vaccination targets.
