Some comments on herd immunity, vaccines and more:
June 29
Press briefings /
source
“Constantine: (
13:04)
Yes, yes, yes. Constantine [inaudible 00:00:13:09]. My press, Georgia. Thank you very much. My question is for Georgia is a country with small economy, but at the same time, we had good results of fighting the coronavirus. What will be the mechanism to get access to the vaccine that will be developed, I hope, with the support of the World Health Organization? Are there any other possibilities to achieve so-called health immunity besides vaccination? Thank you very much.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
13:46)
Good afternoon. We all hope, as you do, that we can reach a point where a safe and effective vaccine is developed and allocated fairly to countries around the world. As the Director-General has said in his speech, we don’t have that vaccine yet. And there’s a lot we can do now to suppress transmission. And I believe the Republic of Georgia has been doing well in this regard, both in terms of community engagement, in terms of suppression of transmission, and saving lives through adequate clinical care. But yes, we do hope that a vaccine will be developed. There have been over 133 candidates put into the system. A large number are now in clinical trials. The Director-General launched the ACT Accelerator in April as a means of leveraging global collaboration and innovation and funding, both for vaccines, drugs, and for diagnostics. The vaccines is probably the one that will absorb most resources and requires a very deep sustained public-private partnership.
It is the best means for countries to access the vaccine. And we have to find a way to ensure that regional alliances that are growing to develop contracts with companies for vaccines are linked to a global movement that ensures that those vaccines are made available to all countries. The GAVI, SEPI, and WHO are working together on Covax, the initiative for coronavirus vaccines, as part of that large advanced market commitments that are being put together in order to secure vaccine production.
There is no other means of achieving adequate herd immunity. The herd immunity is a term usually reserved for the use of vaccines. But we also have to be cautious and careful. We desperately hope, and we can see tremendous work towards, safe and effective vaccines. But there are no guarantees of such. And therefore, that’s why we have so many candidates in testing, so we have an opportunity to find the best one. But the only other way that a virus like this may be suppressed is by us breaking the chains of transmission. If you accept that you cannot do that, then the only option is to let this virus run free through society. And we have already seen the horrific impacts of that. And therefore, reducing mortality, suppressing transmission, while waiting for the arrival of a safe and effective vaccine right now is our best strategy for stopping this disease.
Dr. Tedros: (
16:35)
Thank you. I just would like to … What my general said, Mike, herd immunity is very difficult even when we have vaccines because we need to have a high coverage of vaccine use to have herd immunity.
… vaccine use to have herd immunity, and Mike had already said it.
To be honest with you, I think it would be important to focus on what is at hand now. What is at hand now is the simple public health solution we have that many countries use to suppress the transmission and to save lives. I will give you one example, which is a country. South Korea. In February, I remember South Korea had the second largest number of cases after China. I spoke with the health minister, and the foreign minister came to Geneva to discuss with us in our headquarters here. We agreed on the comprehensive approach, and we agreed on implementing what’s on hand to save lives, and to suppress the transmission. And South Korea has shown to the world that, without even vaccines or therapeutics, that it can take the number of cases down, and suppress the outbreak.
So our message to the world is if the government can do its best in testing, contact tracing, isolating, quarantining cases like what South Korea did, and if the communities … Not only the government, but in addition to the government, the communities take their responsibility of doing what’s expected of them, starting from hand hygiene to the rest that can be done personally, this virus can be suppressed. Time after time, and country after country, what we have seen is this virus can be suppressed if the governments are serious about the things they have to do, their share, and if the community can do its share.
So while doing our best to find a vaccine, which is the right thing to do, our advice from WHO is we should do everything we can using the tools we have at hand. Because many countries, including the one example, Korea … I can give you a list of countries … Have shown that this virus can be suppressed and controlled using the tools at hand. So the basics are still important, and the basics are non-pharmaceutical. And they have shown their efficiency and effectiveness in controlling or suppressing this virus.
The reason I’m stressing this is the virus is spreading aggressively. It’s very tragic to report to you that we have already surpassed the 10 million cases, and have a million deaths. Still, this could have been prevented through the tools that we have at hand. And, please, focus on the tools at hand. Of course, we appreciate the investment you’re doing in finding more technology, vaccines, and therapeutics, but that should be in addition to the maximum use of the tools at hand. And these are the simple solutions that the government can do and the public can do. And we have already outlined those.
So that’s our message. It’s six months since the virus started. It could be like a broken record, to say exactly the same thing, but the same thing works. Test, trace, isolate, and quarantine cases. That’s for the government to do. And, second, hand hygiene for each individual. Of course, wearing masks, and the other things that can be done, social distancing, at individual level. It works, and save lives. And that’s still our message. But, of course, we should look for vaccines and the rest, but the simple and basic public health works, and that’s what we’re saying. Thank you.