“There Is Hope” Says WHO Director-General As He Predicts That The COVID Vaccine Will Be Out By Year-End
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It has been nearly ten months since the coronavirus was first discovered in a wet market in Wuhan, China. When the virus first touched Indian shores around the end of January, none of us expected things to change so drastically, so fast. To say the world went into utter chaos would be an understatement. Many countries decided to go into lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. Initially, countries like Iran and Italy were severely hit, and millions of vulnerable people lost their lives. As the virus spread, America and India emerged as the countries with the highest infection rates, and even today, thousands of people are still getting infected with the virus:
A Call For Solidarity
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus called for people to show solidarity and asked for world leaders to show political commitment. This is to ensure that there was a fair distribution of the vaccine, whenever it did arrive. As of now, there is a major race to provide vaccines to people from around the world. There are around nine experimental vaccines that have been proposed by various countries. WHO aims to distribute at least 2 billion of the vaccines by the end of the year 2021.
WHO had held a meeting amongst its executive board members and had also examined the global response towards the pandemic. The United Nations had heard calls from major countries like Australia, Britain, and Germany to address the criticism that WHO was receiving and to change its structure. The World Health Organization’s committee had earlier received a lot of criticism in the way that they had handled the pandemic. The President of The United States, Donald Trump had accused WHO of showing favor-ism to the Chinese government. He asked why they hadn’t questioned the government for its late actions and not warning the rest of the world about the coronavirus (1).
What Went Wrong?
Tedros has acknowledged the mishandling of information and even said, “We hope to get the real lessons that we can implement and prevent the same thing from happening, But I would like to assure you that WHO is ready to learn from this and change this organization.”
The reality of the matter was that this pandemic was a long time coming. CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates had earlier said that there was a pandemic coming but we were not prepared for it. He had warned that the world did not have enough safety measures in place to tackle things. According to reports, Bill Gates had even warned then presidential-nominee Trump in December 2016 of an upcoming pandemic that could be capable of killing 10 million people. As of now, reported COVID deaths have reached a staggering 1.05 million since its discovery.
Bill decided to speak to all the potential candidates running for the presidency and urged them to take the matter seriously. He spoke about how the future President had to have a plan in order and to prioritize the preparedness and efforts towards tackling a global pandemic. In a TED talk in 2015, Bill had said that viruses pose a great risk for a catastrophe of global proportions. “If anything kills over 10 million people over the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes”. He had added that countries were ready to spend massive amounts of money on avoiding potential nuclear wars but barely any money into preparing for an outright pandemic.
After the coronavirus was declared as a global pandemic, Bill expressed that he was disappointed that he hadn’t been more firm about his views in the past. He had said that he wished he had done more to call attention to the dangers of the viral threat. As of now, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates have donated over 300 million dollars through his charity in order to fight the pandemic (2).
India’s Current Situation
As of today, India is the second highest country in terms of COVID infections after the United States. Many world leaders have criticized both the right-wing governments for their lackluster responses towards the pandemic. While India became the first country to put more than 1.3 billion people under lockdown, it didn’t seem to flatten the curve. Once the government started “unlocking” parts of the economy, cases started surging at a major rate.
According to the Union Health MinisterRajesh Bhushan, “If all goes well, we are looking at vaccine supplies coming in the first quarter of next year. There is a digital platform that is being enhanced to track on a real-time basis the vaccine movement, from procurement, storage to distribution and administration.” The government has highlighted the need for equal distribution of the vaccine and has promised to make sure that it happens (3).
Sure, things might be a little bleak right now, but it is good to know that there is still hope out there for a vaccine. Even if we don’t get the vaccine by this year, if we follow social distancing and keep our immunities up we will be able to kick the virus in the curb or avoid catching it altogether. If you or someone you know are heading outside, please ensure that they wear a mask. Even if you believe you are in perfect health, it will lower your chances of catching the virus while interacting with others. Tell us what your thoughts are in the comment section below?
