WHO. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
The COVID-19 pandemic could be over this year if inequalities in vaccinations and treatments are addressed, the head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
Driving the news: The WHO's Michael Ryan said that although the coronavirus may never end, there was a chance the worst was over and that it could become a "part of the ecosystem."
- "We have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we've been talking about," Ryan said.
- "What we need to do is get to low levels of disease incidence with maximum vaccination of our populations, so nobody has to die."
Flashback: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had previously warned that the world was "on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure" because of unequal COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
- Poorer countries have struggled to get and distribute the vaccine, while wealthier countries like the U.S. have a surplus and began encouraging people to receive boosters.
- "I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said late last year.