WHO Cautions Against ‘Vaccine Nationalism’, Says It Won’t End the Pandemic : Headlines : HNGN

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MADRID, SPAIN - JULY 16: European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Director general of the WHO Tedros Adhanom attend the State tribute to the victims of the coronavirus at the Royal Palace on July 16, 2020 in Madrid, Spain.

Urging world leaders to make plans instead, the World Health Organization or WHO contradicted "vaccine nationalism" as they emphasized that we should focus on sharing life-saving inoculations against COVID-19.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the who shared that the coronavirus threat can only be snuffed out if there will be coordination globally, especially when the vaccine will be fully developed.

During the panel discussion with NBC News, Ghebreyesus emphasized that there should be a global consensus in making a vaccine, to any product that should be available in public globally.

He also added that it is a political choice and a political commitment as well.

Ghebreyesus also pointed out that the political leaders should decide on this as he emphasized that vaccine nationalism is not good and will not help the world.

Alongside with his top deputies. Drs. Maria DeJoseph Van Kerkhove and Mike Ryan via Zoom, Ghebreyesus stated that any nation cannot reemerge from this pandemic if the virus will not be defeated across the world.

The Director-General also cited that this move is not only for the sake of sharing as it also has its advantages.

The world health official also mentioned that sharing vaccines or other tools that can be used will really help the world to recover together which means faster economic recovery as well while the damage caused by the global health crisis will be lessened, Yahoo! News reported.

This also means that if countries with the means to help, who have the funding that will be committed to this, will not be giving charity to other nations, but they will be doing it for themselves, he added.

In the early stages of the pandemic way back March, the Trump administration allegedly tried to lure a German company who seeks to make a COVID-19 vaccine to transfer its research to the American soil.

German politicians reacted to this move and emphasized that no country should monopolize on a future vaccine.

According to the latest tally on Thursday, at least 18.8 million persons across the world have acquired or tested positive with COVID-19 and 708,000 of them died in the pandemic.

Worldwide, the most hardly hit country is the United States with 4.8 million total infections while having a death toll of not less than 160,000.

Earlier this week, the World health official stated that there is no silver bullet that will serve as an immediate cure to COVID-19.

Clarifying this previous comment, Ghebreyesus shared that he simply wants to remind the public to make the most out of the best practices that we currently have.

Ghebreyesus stated that continuous application of physical distancing, wearing of a mask, and hand hygiene can definitely suppress the pandemic.

Many countries have shown that by using these tools, we can definitely control the virus and we need to di what we can do today to save lives.

WHO executive director, Dr. Ryan also reiterated the message of the WHO leader stating that people should act responsibly and simply not to depend and wait for the vaccine to save the world.