WHO Press Briefing
June 29, 2020
Press briefings
Part 1 Transcript /
source
Dr. Tedros: (
01:22)
Thank you. Thank you, Tarek. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Tomorrow marks six months since WHO received the first reports of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in China. The six month anniversary of the outbreak coincides with reaching 10 million cases and 500,000 deaths. This is a moment for all of us to reflect on the progress we have made and the lessons we have learned, and to recommit ourselves to doing everything we can to save lives. Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world and our lives would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus. The pandemic has brought out the best and the worst of humanity. All over the world, we have seen heartwarming acts of resilience, inventiveness, solidarity, and kindness. But we have also seen concerning signs of stigma, misinformation, and the politicization of the pandemic.
Dr. Tedros: (
02:55)
For the past six months, WHO and our partners have worked relentlessly to support all countries to prepare for and respond to this new virus. Today, we are publishing an updated and detailed timeline of WHO’s response to the pandemic on our website so the public can have a look on what happened in the past six months in relation to the response. It illustrates the range of WHO’s work to stop transmission and save lives. We have worked with researchers, clinicians, and other experts to bring together the evolving science and distill it into guidance. Millions of health workers have enrolled in courses through our openwho.org online learning platform. We launched the Solidarity Trial to find answers fast to which drugs are the most effective. We launched the Solidarity flights to ship millions of test kits and tons of personal protective equipment to many countries. We launched the Solidarity Response Fund, which has raised more than $223 million for the response. Three major innovative Solidarity activities. And we have worked with the European Commission and multiple partners to launch the ACT Accelerator to ensure that once a vaccine is available, it’s available to everyone, especially those who are at greatest risk. Last Friday, we launched the ACT Accelerator Investment Case, which estimates that more than $31 billion will be needed to accelerate the development, equitable allocation, and delivery of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics by the end of next year. Over the weekend, WHO was proud to partner in the Global Goal: Unite for our Future, pledging conference, organized by the European Commission and Global Citizen. The event mobilized new resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic globally, including in support of the ACT Accelerator.
Dr. Tedros: (
05:37)
Also, a vaccine will be an important long term tool for controlling COVID-19. There are five priorities that every single country must focus on now to save lives now. First, empower communities. Every individual must understand that they are not helpless. There are things everyone should do to protect themselves and others. Your health is in your hands. That includes physical distancing, hand hygiene, covering coughs, staying home if you feel sick, wearing masks when appropriate, and only sharing information from reliable sources. You may be in low risk category, but the choices you make could be the difference between life and death for someone else.
Dr. Tedros: (
06:44)
Second, suppress transmission. Whether countries have no cases, clusters of cases, or community transmission, there are steps all countries can take to suppress the spread of the virus. Ensure that health workers have access to training and personal protective equipment, improve surveillance to find cases. The single most important intervention for breaking chains of transmission is not necessarily high tech and can be carried out by a broad range of professionals. It’s tracing and quarantine contacts. Many countries actually have used non-health professionals to do contact tracing.
Dr. Tedros: (
07:39)
Third, save lives. Early identification and clinical care saves lives. Providing oxygen and dexamethasone to people with severe and critical disease saves lives. And paying special attention to high risk groups, including elderly people in long term care facilities, saves lives. Japan has done this. It has one of the highest population of elderly people, but its death rate is low. And the reason is what we just said. Many countries can do that. They can save lives. Fourth, accelerate research. We have already learned a lot about this virus, but there is still a lot we don’t know. And there are still tools we need. This week, we will convene a second meeting to assess progress on research and development and reevaluate research priorities for the next stage of the pandemic. And fifth, political leadership. As we have said repeatedly, national unity and global solidarity are essential to implementing a comprehensive strategy to suppress transmission, save lives, and minimize the social and economic impact of the virus. No matter what stage a country is at, these five priorities, if acted on consistently and coherently, can turn the tide.
Dr. Tedros: (
09:36)
WHO will continue to do everything in our power to serve countries with science, solidarity, and solutions. The critical question that all countries will face in the coming months is how to live with this virus. That is the new normal. Many countries have implemented unprecedented measures to suppress transmission and save lives. These measures have been successful in slowing the spread of the virus, but they have not completely stopped it. Some countries are now experiencing a resurgence of cases as they start to reopen their economies and societies. Most people remain susceptible. The virus still has a lot of room to move. We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.
Dr. Tedros: (
11:16)
We’re all in this together. And we’re all in this for the long haul. We will need even greater stores of resilience, patience, humility, and generosity in the months ahead. We have already lost so much, but we can not lose hope. This is a time for renewing our commitment to empowering communities, suppressing transmission, saving lives, accelerating research, and political and moral leadership. But it’s also a time for all countries to renew their commitment to universal health coverage, at the cornerstone of social and economic development and to building the safer, fairer, greener, more inclusive world we all want. I thank you.
Tarik: (
12:29)
Thank you, Dr. Tedros, for these opening remarks marking the six months of pandemic. We will now open the floor to questions. Reminding, once again, journalists that if they wish, they can ask question in six UN languages and Portuguese. So if we are ready from the technical side, we will go first to Georgia, Georgian News Agency. And we have with us Constantine [inaudible 00:00:13:00]. If you hear us, Constantine, please go ahead.
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.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
14:52)
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.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
15:26)
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.
Dr. Tedros: (
17:03)
… vaccine use to have herd immunity, and Mike had already said it.
Dr. Tedros: (
17:09)
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.
Dr. Tedros: (
18:38)
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.
Dr. Tedros: (
19:42)
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.
Dr. Tedros: (
20:37)
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.
Dr. Tedros: (
21:43)
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.
Tarik: (
22:45)
Thank you, Dr. Ryan and Dr. Tedros, for this answer. We will now go to Michael [Vulsukiev 00:22:52], who is a contributor to CNN. Michael, the floor is yours.
Michael Vulsukiev: (
22:57)
Yes, can you hear me?
Tarik: (
22:59)
Yes.
Michael Vulsukiev: (
23:00)
Thank you for taking my question. Good morning from British Columbia.
Michael Vulsukiev: (
23:04)
Director General, this question relates to your opening statement that the pandemic has brought out the best and worst in humanity, including politicization of the pandemic. Just a few days ago, Marco Rubio [inaudible 00:23:17] were among 500 people who warned in a letter that democracy is under threat by certain authoritarian leaders due to coronavirus. They’ve cited parliaments being sidelined, journalists arrested, minorities scapegoated, and most vulnerable sectors of the population face alarming new dangers. My question is the following, sir. Ambassador William Taylor told me that strong men do not seem to be winning against COVID-19, that the virus is having a devastating effect on strong men who aren’t taking the steps that need to be taken. Do you have an opinion on that, or do you agree? Thank you.
Dr. Tedros: (
23:53)
Can you repeat? Sorry, I didn’t know the ambassador that you mentioned.
Michael Vulsukiev: (
23:58)
Oh, sorry. It’s Ambassador William Taylor. He is quite well known as a US ambassador. He was in the congressional testimony a few months ago. Served to various places around the world. He’s now with the US Institute of Peace, and studies strong men a lot, and he said that if strong men believed that they could take advantage of COVID-19 to suppress civil liberties, they’re wrong, that this will backfire on them.
Dr. Tedros: (
24:25)
Mm-hmm ( affirmative).
Dr. Tedros: (
24:34)
Yeah. No, thank you. Our message from the start was very, very simple. I was a politician myself. I was a member of parliament. Maybe something I learned while I was a politician was at the end of the day, what you do should be something that helps your people. And one thing may be I learned the biggest lesson is even if we belong to different political parties, the citizens of that any country, you bring any country, are the same.
Dr. Tedros: (
25:38)
So whether we belong to the right or left, or we are the center, but they call progressive party, what matters at the end of the day is what we do good for the people. Then if you take COVID, if you see it in doing good for our citizens, what you do is saving lives. Because even one life is important, whether it belongs to the left, to the right, or to the center. And that’s why from the start we said please, please quarantine COVID politics. Please, we need national unity. Unity at the country level, unity among political parties, unity across ideologies, unity across beliefs, unity across races. Unity across any differences you can imagine, because there was a reason why we said that.
Dr. Tedros: (
26:56)
This virus has two dangerous combinations, and we have said it many times, and even the international expert group that visited China that was composed of many countries, including the US, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Korea, Singapore … Many countries, actually. A very diverse … Russia. A very diverse group of international experts said this virus has two dangerous combinations. One is it’s fast, it’s contagious. Second, it’s a killer. And it can exploit divisions. Divisions between us across all the lines which I have said, and that’s why WHO has been saying, please, avoid any division. Any differences could be exploited by the virus, and that we have to fight this virus in unison.
Dr. Tedros: (
28:29)
And that’s why whatever what you said, our message is still the same. It’s not about one country, or two countries, or three countries. It’s not about something specific to any place. It’s about how we should operate globally, whether it’s at national level, sub-national level, or regional level, or global level. And with 10 million cases now, and half a million deaths, unless we address the problems we have already identified at WHO, the lack of national unity and lack of global solidarity, and [inaudible 00:29:30] the virus to spread, as I said in my speech, the worst is yet to come.
Dr. Tedros: (
29:40)
I’m sorry to say that, but with this kind of environment and condition, we fear the worst. And that’s why we have to bring our acts together, and fight this dangerous virus together. I thank you.
Tarik: (
30:06)
Thank you, Dr. Tedros, and thanks to Michael for this question. We will now go to the Economic Times of India, and we have with us [Devia 00:30:20] [Agajagopal 00:30:20]. Devia, you will need to unmute yourself. Hello?
Devia Agajagopal: (
30:26)
Hello. Thank you for taking my question. Am I audible?
Tarik: (
30:31)
Yes, we can hear you.
Devia Agajagopal: (
30:33)
Yes. Hi. I wanted to ask this question to the entire panel. Last week, Anthony Fauci of NIH has said that contact tracing is becoming increasingly difficult at this stage of the pandemic. Do you think that as infection spreads in most countries, it is still possible to use contact tracing as a effective way of mitigation? Thank you.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
30:59)
I think yes, but it’s very dependent on the background intensity of transmission. In situations where there’s very intense community transmission, and large numbers of cases every day, it’s very hard to get on top of case isolation alone, nevermind the contact tracing. So countries may need to make some choices on that regard. But what has happened for those countries who have been effective, those countries who stuck with contact tracing and isolation or quarantine and of contacts, have found then as the number of cases drops, that they can catch up on the contact tracing, and improve.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
31:39)
The difficulty has been for many countries who gave up entirely on contact tracing now having to pick that up, now having to scale up the architecture of public health surveillance as they’ve opened up societies and decreased the public health and social measures on the restrictions of movement. It’s quite tough for the public health system to catch up, and it takes time for it to do so. And the Director General said many, many times during this period of so-called “lockdowns” that this was precious time to prepare. Not only were public health and social measures having an impact on transmission, they were also clearly having a negative impact on social and economic life, and that this precious opportunity needed to be taken.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
32:26)
And we’ve seen in countries who have really beefed up their capacity to do contact tracing, isolation, quarantine, testing, and all of the things the Director General spoke about, they have done well.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
32:38)
So, yes, contact tracing, public health surveillance is a key part of a package of activities. The DG has said it. If individuals and communities can sustain the physical distancing, the hygiene, the mask-wearing, and the other things that are appropriate and advised by local government, if the public health system can continue to track and trace cases, yes, we should see a situation where the disease comes under control. And many countries have proven that. That is not supposition. Many, many countries, through applying a comprehensive strategy, have reached a very low level of virus transmission in their countries. But always have to remain vigilant in case there are clusters or small outbreaks. We’ve seen those situations arise in Germany. We’ve seen those situations arise in Singapore and Japan, in Korea, in China, and other countries.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
33:34)
And, again, it’s in those situations where your public health surveillance and your contact tracing and your ability to investigate clusters really comes into its own. And where you’ve really seen the advantage of public health and public health architecture is that ability to pounce on disease. What you have to do is push the disease down to the lowest possible level, and communities have made a huge sacrifice for that happen. They’ve stayed at home, they’ve stayed away from their families. They’ve contributed tremendously to suppressing-
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
34:03)
They’ve contributed tremendously to suppressing infection. And what public health authorities have needed to do is to put in place the right public health surveillance in order to take advantage of that. So as the restrictions are lifted and as we see small clusters appear, the public health authorities can react quickly and suppress that infection again. And a great credit goes to countries like Germany, like Japan, like Korea, and others who’ve really focused in on that function of the system. They’re able to use a multifaceted approach. They’re able to sustain community commitment to the process. High levels of community acceptance, high levels of community compliance, high levels of community understanding linked to a strong public health intervention and a strengthened public health and health system. It works.
Dr. Michael Ryan: (
34:53)
It’s not a guarantee of success but what we’ve seen is that countries that apply a comprehensive sustained strategy with their communities on board make progress. There are no guarantees with epidemics, but this right now is the best package of activities that countries have shown again and again can lead to us arriving at a situation where we can live with this virus.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove: (
35:18)
I just want to add two points to what Mike has said. One is that it can be increasingly difficult to apply this comprehensive approach as transmission increases. But it’s not one activity alone. It is not contact tracing alone. It is not case finding alone. It is not physical distancing alone. You’ve heard the Director General, you’ve heard us say this all the time. But it’s worth repeating because there tends to be a focus on a particular intervention but it needs to be all of the above. And with an empowered community, with an engaged community, with listening to the community and having the community listen and adhere to the public health measures that are in place, this can be done. And so it can be increasingly difficult but what we have seen is in countries that have been in an overwhelming situation, they’ve prioritized these activities, these interventions into specific areas within the countries where transmission seems to be the highest intensity, perhaps related to a super spreading event or a particular cluster, and bringing that transmission down from an overwhelming situation to clusters of activity and from clusters of activity to chains of transmission.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove: (
36:26)
And the other point is, is that it can be turned around. Again, many countries are seeing situations where they’re feeling completely overwhelmed, and we have seen many countries demonstrate that you can turn this around. You can bring transmission under control. It is very, very difficult, but again, prioritizing the work, prioritizing interventions to where it’s needed most, bringing situations under control where you can get a quicker gain and then focusing on higher areas of intensity. These approaches in countries need to be administered at the lowest administrative level as possible to bring situations under control to as many places as you can as quickly as you can. But it can be turned around. And we wouldn’t be saying this unless we’ve seen it happen. And unless we’ve seen countries demonstrate this repeatedly in multiple regions across the globe.
Dr. Tedros: (
37:18)
Yeah. Thank you. I think this is very important and I would be happy to add my voice to my colleagues, Mike and Ryan, Mike and Maria. Mike and Maria. Mike Ryan, my general is a very humble servant of humanity. And he wouldn’t tell you what the real stories are regarding contact tracing. I know contact tracing is difficult and I agree with you our colleague, our friend who asked this question. And I know and I understand if countries say contact tracing is difficult. But if you want to try difficult, probably add contact tracing the number of cases. You trace with a situation which is dire to your life. Meaning try it in a place like North Kivu in DRC where 20 rebels operate, armed rebels, and where security is not there. Where your own security is precarious. And when Mike Ryan was leading the whole effort, he was in DRC North Kivu for several months. When there was engagement between different warring parties almost every single day.
Dr. Tedros: (
39:19)
And when you would do contact tracing of 25,000 a day despite that security situation. He didn’t send me actually, somebody sent me from the front lines, Mike Ryan wearing the helmet bulletproof, and also the jacket bulletproof and going to communities to do contact tracing and the rest, because he had no option. If you can do contact tracing in that condition, risking your life and he’s the most senior person in terms of emergency response, one of the most senior. Doing contact tracing in a stable and peaceful place wherever it is in many countries, should that come as even an issue? I’m just asking. If there is a single failure for many of our countries to really not hunt down this virus is our failure in contact tracing because we have lame excuses saying it’s too many and it’s very difficult to trace because there are too many. Trust me there is no too many even in a war situation.
Dr. Tedros: (
41:09)
If contact tracing helps you to win the fight, you do it even risking your life or get about a place where there is peace. The reason I’m saying this is we don’t tell or we don’t talk about the stories of a simple human being like Mike Ryan who would do this in a situation that risked his life. So if you want to know if contact tracing is difficult, then I will send you his picture in his bulletproof helmet and bulletproof jacket because he believed that he had to do everything to stop the Ebola and to show that saving lives actually needs that level of commitment.
Dr. Tedros: (
42:18)
So my answer is just brief. I explained and hopefully that you will understand why I said why I will say the simple phrase because I want you to understand the background. Trust me, no excuse for contact tracing. If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse. Thank you.
Tarik: (
42:53)
Thank you Dr. Tedros and Dr. Ryan and Maria as well for this detailed answer on question on contact tracing. We will now go to Brussels Times and we have with us some Mose Apelblat. Mose, can you hear us? You just need to press unmute.
Mose Apelblat: (
43:23)
I did it now, okay. Hello? All right?
Tarik: (
43:26)
Now we can hear you. Yes, we can hear you.
Mose Apelblat: (
43:28)
Okay. Thank you very much. My question refers perhaps to lessons learned. The previous question was about contact tracing and as you said it was not much applied perhaps in the beginning because most countries were overwhelmed by the number of infections and that was but a bad excuse for not trying it out. But that brings to questions if you have any lessons learned about the type of contact tracing which should be applied. I’m talking about, I think about the NSA manual contract tracing and digital contact tracing, which also involves questions about privacy.
Mose Apelblat: (
44:12)
And that brings me to my overall question, because I remember that there was a World Health Assembly which took place in May I think. And they decided that WHO should at it own choice of timing, perhaps initiate some kind of evaluation of its lessons learned of the response to the Coronavirus. So I would like to ask if it has started or if you think it’s perhaps too early, although already as you said in the beginning, Director General Dr. Tedros said half a year has passed since we got the first report of the outbreak. And the other investigation, which was decided by the Assembly was to find out the zoonotic cause or source of the virus. [inaudible 00:45:11] it more or less but I wonder if [inaudible 00:45:14] or investigation has started. Thank you.
Tarik: (
45:19)
That’s lots of question and I did forget to remind everyone as I do usually that we take one question per person but Dr.Ryan will try to help.
Dr. Tedros: (
45:29)
I will take the last one. The last one on the zoonotic source, WHO has been saying that knowing the source of the virus is very, very important. Its signs, its public health. We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started and we will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that. And we hope that that will lead into understanding how the virus started and what we can do for the future to prepare. So we’re planning to send a team next week. Thank you.