[ad_1]
The World Health Organization has called for a global response to the Omicron coronavirus, saying that countries that report the new problem should not be punished, as South African scientists who have found it are planning to send samples to labs around the world.
The discovery of a highly adaptable new species of coronavirus in Botswana earlier this month has come as a surprise to health officials around the world, as it appears to be contributing to the rise in South Africa. The so-called Omicron features a precautionary measure that shows that it can re-infect patients and prevent vaccination. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Several countries have imposed strict travel restrictions on southern Africa. Switzerland has also banned travel from Israel, Hong Kong and Belgium, where two separate cases have been confirmed.
Stock markets fell on Friday while investors struggled with the possibility that much of the recovery from the epidemic could be reversed.
“We have countries that are reporting this and we do not want them to be discriminated against,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s chief technology officer for Covid-19, told the Financial Times. “There has to be stability in response.”
He was asked if travel restrictions Van Kerkhove said countries should increase the screening of these and other species, increase the amount of testing and perform “intelligent calculations” that “represent geographical, multi-national, and experimental technologies, not in terms of quantity, but quality”.
“We want people to have a way to know about risk,” he said. “Delta is [still] around the world and killing people all over the world. We will never forget the number of people with Delta. “
Van Kerkhove said that if the opportunity to get vaccinated worldwide were the same, “we would be living in very different epidemics.[al] and the global economic situation. When you have the poor and the most vulnerable, there is less death ”.
The WHO played an unusual role in the Omicron genre it was “worrying” Friday, skipping the middle section of “interest”. This move has little effect, but it is a sign to the world that the issue is serious.
Scientists on a team of WHO expert advisers on vaccine development debated whether to call it the “first thing”, but decided to give it a higher name after agreeing to respond slowly during major periods of the epidemic was dangerous, according to the public. well versed in what was said.
Tulio de Oliveira, one of the scientists who initiated the Omicron discovery and head of the Center for Epidemic Response & Innovation in South Africa, said the country “has been plagued by vaccination, travel restrictions and discrimination since Beta was discovered. [variant] and now Omicron ”.
“If this trend continues, it is likely that more and more countries will stop talking about the new species and the global threats that are looming,” he told FT.
De Oliveira said he had been asked by the US National Institutes of Health, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, UK Health Security Agency and Porton Down labs to share the virus.
“We will do the same as we did with Beta – it is the transmission of viruses to all major corporations around the world.”
“We have always been working closely with major security agencies around the world so that key questions can be answered promptly,” he said. “We do not send samples to private companies but we work with our government and other security agencies.”
Van Kerkhove said Omicron appeared to be displaying so-called “growth benefits”, as the diagnostic method – the missing gene for PCR tests – was growing.
He could not provide the total number of cases found.
He said it was not known where the virus came from, but one of the speculations was probably from a patient with a viral infection who was unable to eradicate the virus and who was infected for a long time.
Van Kerkhove stressed that the WHO does not want people to be afraid, and that “there are already agreements on how the virus can be distributed, so scientists can work together in real time” to study vaccine effects and immune responses. Results are expected within the first two to three weeks, he said.
Van Kerkhove said this “could be” the moment of December 2019 / January 2020, when the world first heard of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China.
“South Africa was given to [the WHO] this week. We acted quickly, ”he said. “No grief.”
[ad_2]
Source link
