2022 must be year 'we end pandemic' - WHO chief
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As the emerging Omicron variant ravages the world, the WHO highlights vaccine inequity, urging for ending the phenomenon.
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World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (AFP)
The world must pull itself together and make the difficult choices needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic within the next year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
"2022 must be the year we end the pandemic," Tedros told reporters in Geneva.
As the end of the year holidays and festivities approach, the UN health agency chief said countries should control holiday-related events because allowing crowds and gatherings would be a "perfect platform" for Omicron to spread.
It would be better to cancel events now and celebrate later "than to celebrate now and grieve later," he added.
Omicron, the newest COVID-19 variant, was first reported in South Africa in November and has since then been identified in some 90 countries, which eroded all hopes of the pandemic being over.
According to the UN health agency, the variant, which is heavily mutated, is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
"There is now consistent evidence that Omicron is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant," the health chief said, cautioning that the strain appears to have the ability to double its infections every 1.5 to three days, which "is really fast," he underlined.
In addition to increased transmissibility, early data has shown signs of worrying resistance to vaccines.
The World Health Organization said last week that although the Omicron coronavirus variant has less severe symptoms than the Delta variant, it is more transmissible and reduces vaccine efficacy.
The WHO added in the brief, "Early evidence suggests Omicron causes a reduction in vaccine efficacy against infection and transmission."
Amid growing concern over Omicron, many governments are working to provide their citizens with booster shots, as data suggests a third shot could offer increased protection against the heavily mutated variant.
Pfizer said earlier this month a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine could offer vital protection against the new Omicron variant.
The pharmaceutical company underscored that the initial two doses appear to be drastically less effective. Pfizer-BioNTech said two doses might not offer protection sufficient enough to prevent infection. However, according to the partners, lab tests showed a booster shot increased by 25 times the level of anti-virus antibodies in the host against the Omicron variant.
The World Health Organization has over and over again expressed its concern over booster programs, arguing they could deepen vaccine inequity between wealthy and poorer countries, to which many attribute the repeatedly surging COVID-19 cases.
Millions of vulnerable people are still awaiting their first vaccine dose, and the WHO has repeatedly urged prioritizing them over providing booster doses to fully vaccinated, healthy adults.
"If we are to end the pandemic in the coming year, we must end inequity," Tedros underscored.
