This is how the COVID-19 health emergency could be over this year, WHO says
LA TimesJohn Nkengasong, left, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and moderator Julia Chatterley during a remote panel on vaccine equity at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking during a panel discussion on vaccine inequity hosted by the World Economic Forum, said “we may never end the virus” because such pandemic viruses “end up becoming part of the ecosystem.” But “we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we’ve been talking about,” he said. She said resources to fight the pandemic were being “hoarded by a few companies and a few shareholders.” John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, decried the “total collapse of global cooperation and solidarity” over the last two years, saying it was “totally unacceptable” how few people in Africa have gotten vaccine shots. Citing advanced research in Israel, Bennett said, “We want to be first in the world to know how vaccines and the new variants respond to one another.” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his country had high levels of vaccination because society values protecting the elderly and the vulnerable. He said he was trying to balance restrictions with keeping the economy open but that a “zero COVID policy against the omicron variant is not possible nor appropriate.” In a separate briefing Tuesday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Omicron variant “continues to sweep the world,” adding there were 18 million new coronavirus cases reported last week.