WHO: COVID exposed 'chronic under-investment in public health', billions of lives impacted

The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the “global chronic under-investment in public health” which should now lead the country leaders to majorly rethink how all societies view the health sector. During the closing remarks at WHO’s governing body, the World Health Assembly WHO Secretary-General highlighted the “socio-economic crisis” ignited by the pandemic that has further impacted the lives and livelihoods of billions of people across the globe and also undermined the stability and solidarity of the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has “demonstrated the consequences of chronic under-investment in public health”, said Tedros, and the health crisis, “has ignited a socio-economic crisis that has impacted billions of lives and livelihoods and undermined global stability and solidarity. Returning to the status quo is not an option.”

The WHO chief said it wasn’t just more investment that was needed in public health infrastructure, “we must also rethink how we value health.”

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Tedros highlighted the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine breakthrough

During the same remarks, Tedros also highlighted the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine breakthrough that was announced last week by the American pharmaceutical company when it revealed that the interim data shows its mRNA-based vaccine is 90% effective. The WHO chief said that he had “no doubt” that vaccines were a vital tool for controlling the widespread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19 but he also acknowledged that the world still has a “long way to go”. 

“Never in history has vaccine research progressed so quickly. We must apply the same urgency and innovation to ensuring that all countries benefit from this scientific achievement,” he said.

“But we have a long way to go. The world cannot put all its eggs in one basket and neglect the many other tools at our disposal, that countries like Thailand have shown are effective, for bringing this virus under control,” Tedros added. 

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus dashboard, on November 16, showed a record daily number of new COVID-19 cases over the weekend. While the number of people infected with the virus surged past 54 million, the number of fatalities surpassed 1.3 million. Over 34.7 million people have recovered till now, the data revealed. The 660,905 coronavirus cases on November 14 number, and the 645,410 registered on November 13, surpassed the previous daily record high of 614,013 recorded on November 7. 

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