The Wuhan coronavirus has killed more than a million people worldwide, wreaked havoc on global economies and profoundly changed daily life. And yet, the World Health Organization said that COVID-19 “is not necessarily the big one.”
“This is an alert,” said WHO emergency chief Michael Ryan on Monday during a news conference, reports the New York Post. “This pandemic was very severe.”
He continued: “It spread across the world extremely fast and affected every corner of the planet, but this is not necessarily the biggest.”
ALT: Was it really the midfielder?
– Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) December 29, 2020
Ryan noted that while COVID-19 is “very transmissible and kills people … its current lethality (rate) is reasonably low compared to other emerging diseases”.
He added: “The likely scenario is that the virus will become another endemic virus that will remain somewhat of a threat, but a very low-level threat in the context of an effective global vaccination program.
“It remains to be seen how well vaccines are taken, how close we come to a level of coverage that can give us the opportunity to go for elimination,” he continued. “The existence of a vaccine, even with high efficacy, is no guarantee of eliminating or eradicating an infectious disease. This is a very high barrier that we must overcome. “
The world must prepare for “something that may be even more severe in the future,” he said.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there were more than 81 million global cases of COVID-19 and more than 1.7 million people died from the new coronavirus. In the United States, 335,208 deaths were reported as of December 29.
WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward said that while progress has been made on the scientific front related to COVID-19, the agency is not fully prepared to prevent another pandemic.
“We are in the second and third waves of this virus and we are not yet prepared to deal with and manage them,” he said. “So, although we are better prepared … we are not fully prepared for this one, let alone the next one.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “time to be really serious”.
Although there was more awareness, he said “more ambition will be needed”.
Tedros also praised global cooperation between scientists to help end the pandemic, citing the two new strains of the virus that Britain and South Africa are now dealing with.
“We are working with scientists from the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies, which will guide the next steps,” he said.
“Only if countries are looking for and testing effectively will you be able to choose variants and adjust strategies to deal with the situation,” continued Tedros.
And as dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions on Britain, Tedros said, “We must ensure that countries are not punished for transparently sharing new scientific discoveries.”
A Twitter user commented, “This will never end until people refuse to continue.” Others wondered if it meant that China has “something bigger planned”. Some questioned whether it was a “warning or a threat”.
Warning or a threat? https://t.co/xzf1m5RIQ0
– Liz George ?? (@lillibibitus) December 29, 2020