WHO, the Covid pandemic “is not necessarily the worst” – Corriere.it

“This pandemic has been very serious. It spread very quickly to all corners of the world, but not necessarily the worst»Said Michael Ryan, manager of strategic and technical emergencies representing the World Health Organization (WHO), during the press conference at the end of the year. Ryan specified that vaccines now offer us a weapon to defeat the virus that has caused 81 million infections worldwide and nearly 1.8 million deaths; He added that, although we are still in full emergency, we are better prepared to handle it, but he also specified that the Covid-19 epidemic was a kind of “alarm siren” to warn us of worse health emergencies that could occur. . “The death rate of Covid-19 is relatively low compared to other emerging diseases, ”explained Professor Ryan. “So we have to prepare for something that could be more serious in the future.”
“The world has waited for herd immunity”Ryan said that transmission would have slowed if an adequate number of people had become immune, but unfortunately there was a misunderstanding surrounding that concept.

Living with Covid-19 is something we have to get used to, Ryan said in summary: it seems that the fate of Sars-CoV-2 (Covid-19) is to become endemic, as well as four other human coronaviruses, and which will continue to mutate as they reproduce in human cells. Fortunately, we now have the tools to save lives and these, in combination with a good health system, will allow us to learn to live with Covid-19.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus concluded on a note of optimism: “In terms of conscience, I think we are now, but now is the time to get really serious and have more ambition in research.”