“Hard-won gains could vanish in instant,” is the warning of the Director- General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his response to reports on the reported outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The caveat comes with the emphasis that no country “can vaccinate its way out of pandemic alone.”
The warning is timely and pertinent. The WHO chief has warned that while many might think “we are done with Covid-19…it is not done with us”. Urging governments worldwide to eradicate the vaccine inequity, he stated that “we cannot end this pandemic unless we solve the vaccine crisis.”
The fine print of his presentation must be that every country has “a responsibility to protect its own people,” but uneven distribution implies more opportunity for coronavirus to “spread and evolve in ways we cannot predict, or prevent.”
The highly mutated B.1.1.529 strain of SARSCoV-2 that the scientists as well as WHO say has a ‘transmissibility advantage’ over all previous variants, could drive future surges of Covid-19. Based on the early evidence, the risk of the global spread of Omicron is “very high.” He further warned that as long as the inequity of jabs persists, the pandemic will not end.
“We cannot end this pandemic unless we solve the vaccine crisis,” said the WHO chief, even as he criticised wealthier nations for rushing to administer booster jabs to healthier people, stating that while vaccines are “in every country’s best interest” the emergence of the new variant ~ a highly-mutated coronavirus ~ and other such variants will continue to cause concern until the entire world’s population is equally vaccinated.
WHO is also pushing for an international accord to bring all countries together to fight and foster preparedness for future pandemic outbreaks. “The emergence of the highly mutated Omicron variant underlines just how perilous and precarious our situation is,” Tedros said, calling for a “legally binding” agreement as he sought consensus for a way forward.
“Indeed, Omicron demonstrates just why the world needs a new accord on pandemics. While there is merit in what the WHO chief says, the global body’s positions on the pandemic have been compromised by what some consider an initially weak-kneed response and overarching anxiety not to rub Beijing the wrong way.
A controversy even arose over the naming of the new variant, with some eyebrows raised at the skipping of “Nu” and “Xi” in the Greek alphabet to jump to Omicron. The larger cause for concern though is that countries are adopting national rather than global perspectives in tailoring their responses. Europe, already in the grip of a severe resurgence of the virus, has detected the new strain and the responses are predictably to restrict travel to the continent.
Within countries, fatigue with Covid protocols, the pressure of quarantined stays and vaccine hesitancy is adding to the strain on public health officials. The genie that escaped nearly two years ago continues to haunt the world.