World can start dreaming of pandemic’s end:WHO chief

The next year is going to be "humanitarian catastrophe" and there is a risk of poor countries being "trampled" as rich countries roll out Covid-19 vaccines, top UN officials told the 193-member UN General Assembly on Friday. World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke during a special meeting on the coronavirus situation."2021 is literally going to be catastrophic based on what we're seeing at this stage of the game," David Beasley said, news agency Reuters reported. "We are not going to be able to fund everything, so we have to prioritise, as I say, the icebergs in front of the Titanic," Beasley said.

In an address to the U.N. General Assembly’s first high-level session on the pandemic, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that while the virus can be stopped, “the path ahead remains treacherous.” He said that positive results from coronavirus vaccine trials mean the world “can begin to dream about the end of the pandemic,” but he said rich and powerful nations must not trample the poor and marginalized “in the stampede for vaccines.” He warned  that a vaccine “will not address the vulnerabilities that lie at its root” -- poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change, which he said must be tackled once the pandemic ends.

He said $4.3 billion is needed immediately to lay the groundwork for mass procurement and delivery of vaccines and a further $23.9 billion is required for 2021. That total, Tedros said, is less than one-half of 1 percent of the $11 trillion in stimulus packages announced so far by the Group of 20, the world’s richest countries.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his top officials have also called for Covid-19 vaccines to be made available to all and for rich countries to help developing countries combat and recover from the pandemic.