{"id":402074,"date":"2020-12-05T08:31:25","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T05:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/?p=402074"},"modified":"2020-12-05T08:31:25","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T05:31:25","slug":"covid-19-stretched-multilateralism-who-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/covid-19-stretched-multilateralism-who-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 stretched multilateralism: WHO chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mogadishu<strong> (SONNA)-<\/strong>The head of the World Health Organization told the UN General Assembly that the coronavirus pandemic stretched the fabric of multilateralism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the past 75 years, the UN has had many successes and many challenges. But none more than the COVID-19 pandemic which has strained the very fabric of multilateralism,&#8221; Tedros Ghebreyesus said via video link from Geneva.<\/p>\n<p>He said the pandemic has demonstrated what the UN at its best can do and outlined a case for countries that have strong overall health systems best coping with the lethal virus.<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic has shown what it is capable of at its best and worse, inspiring acts of compassion and self-sacrifice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s taking feats of science and innovation, and heartwarming demonstrations of solidarity, but also disturbing signs of self-interest, blame-shifting, and division,&#8221; according to Tedros, who aid many countries have succeeded in preventing or containing widespread transmission with proven public health measures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not a fluke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is not a fluke of geography or demography. These countries have proven that with science, solidarity, and sacrifice, this virus can be tamed this virus can be stopped.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But when science is drowned out by conspiracy theories, where solidarity is undermined by division when sacrifice is substituted with self-interest, the virus thrives, the virus spreads,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world needs the leadership of nations at the United Nations to end the pandemic and build the post pandemic world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He noted that more than 60 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported to the WHO and 1.5 million people have been killed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Although this is a global health crisis, it&#8217;s important to remember that not all countries have responded equally. And not all countries have been affected equally,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said despite years of warnings, many countries were not ready for COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many mistakenly assumed their strong health systems would protect them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of the countries that have done best have recent experience of responding to outbreaks of such as SARS, MERS, H1N1 and other infectious diseases,\u201d he said. &#8220;Now, all countries must develop that same muscle memory and invest in the measures that will predict prevalent control and mitigate the next crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s also clear that the global system for preparedness needs attention. The International Health Regulations is a powerful legal tool, but countries must use it more effectively,&#8221; said Tedros.<\/p>\n<p>The WHO chief said the pandemic underlined why universal health coverage is so important.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the face of the pandemic, many countries have offered free testing and treatment for the COVID-19 and have promised free vaccination for their populations,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>They recognized the ability to pay should not be the difference between sickness and health, life and death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Should that also be true for a crisis by cancer, heart diseases, HIV, TB, or malaria?,\u201d he said. &#8220;Shouldn&#8217;t it also be too for services like routine immunization, maternal care, and tobacco control which can prevent a crisis and the costs of dealing with it? universal health coverage is built on strong health systems?,&#8221; said Tedros.<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic showed an urgent need for a globally agreed system for sharing pathogen materials and clinical samples to facilitate the rapid development of medical countermeasures, as global public goods, said Tedros.<\/p>\n<p>@<strong>AA<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mogadishu (SONNA)-The head of the World Health Organization told the UN General Assembly that the coronavirus pandemic stretched the fabric of multilateralism. &#8220;In the past 75 years, the UN has had many successes and many challenges. But none more than the COVID-19 pandemic which has strained the very fabric of multilateralism,&#8221; Tedros Ghebreyesus said via [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402074"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402077,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402074\/revisions\/402077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}