Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
I am honoured to be joined by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica and President Sebastián Piñera of Chile for today’s press briefing.
Researchers are working at breakneck speed both to understand the virus and also to develop potential vaccines, medicines and other technologies.
The Access to COVID-19 Accelerator is uniting efforts on many fronts to ensure we have safe, effective and affordable therapeutics and vaccines in the shortest time possible.
These tools provide additional hope of overcoming COVID-19, but they will not end the pandemic if we cannot ensure equitable access to them.
In these extraordinary circumstances, we need to unleash the full power of science, to deliver innovations that are scalable, usable, and benefit everyone, everywhere, at the same time.
Traditional market models will not deliver at the scale needed to cover the entire globe.
Solidarity within and between countries and the private sector is essential if we are to overcome these difficult times.
Now is the moment where leaders must come together to develop a new global access policy and an operational tool, which will turn the many good intentions expressed in recent weeks into reality.
We are seeing some good examples where companies are coming out with solidarity approaches – from open licensing and support, to tech transfer via the new Tech Access Partnership, to commitments not to increase prices in times of shortages.
WHO recognizes the wide-ranging efforts and initiatives aimed at incentivizing innovation while also ensuring access for all. These will be important topics next week at the World Health Assembly.
At the beginning of the pandemic, President Alvarado asked me to set up a health technology repository for vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and any other tool that may work against COVID-19.
WHO has accepted this visionary proposal from his excellency President Alvarado and will, in the next few weeks, launch a platform for open, collaborative sharing of knowledge, data and intellectual property on existing and new health tools to combat COVID-19.
So I’m happy to give the floor to our special guest, President Alvarado of Costa Rica to speak more about his proposal.
You have the floor.
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Thank you President Alvarado for that inspiring speech
I have seen your enthusiasm and all my appreciation for your leadership.
I would like to quote you, “let’s show the best of humanity.” I fully agree and join you in adding my voice to your call. I look forward to joining you at the May 19th launch.
Muchas Gracias
And now I request President Piñera to take the floor and outline your views on this initiative.
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Thank you President Piñera, for your statement.
Your excellencies, thank you for laying down a collective vision for how the world can deliver lifesaving health technologies to tackle COVID-19.
Global solidarity will accelerate science and expand access so that together we can overcome the virus.
Until everyone is protected, the world will remains at risk.
I know you have busy schedules your excellencies so I will just say thank you to all once again.
President Alvarado and President Piñera, thank you so much
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I will now make the rest of my remarks.
Next week, one of the most important World Health Assembly’s will take place since we were founded in 1948.
I am looking forward to greeting and working with leaders from across the world to ensure that together we optimise the COVID-19 response and build back stronger health systems.
Over the past few months, across the world, we have shown that when countries implement a comprehensive strategy they can effectively contain and suppress the spread of the virus, while minimizing the impact on lives and livelihoods.
The pandemic has shown again, and in the strongest way possible, that investing in health is not just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.
There’s no trade off between investing in health and your economy. Health is an investment in our collective future.
Funding quality health for all, doesn’t just save lives; it means children are healthy and can go to school; people can go to work to earn a living and societies and economies are both stronger and more sustainable.
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Yesterday, WHO released a policy brief on gender and COVID-19, which encourages countries to incorporate a gender focus into their responses.
It includes six key asks for governments:
First, when recording cases, collect both age and sex-disaggregated data;
Second, prevent and respond effectively to issues of domestic violence, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic;
Third, encourage availability and access to sexual and reproductive health services;
Fourth, protect and support all health workers, approximately 70 percent of the whom are women;
Fifth, ensure equitable access to testing and treatment for COVID-19;
And finally; sixth, ensure responses are both inclusive and non-discriminatory.
To maximise effectiveness and ensure that no one is left behind, tackling the pandemic requires a gender-responsive, equity-oriented and human rights-based approach.
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This evening, WHO will release a Scientific Brief on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.
In the past weeks, reports from Europe and North America have described a small number of children being admitted to intensive care units with a multisystem inflammatory condition with some features similar to Kawasaki’s disease and toxic shock syndrome.
Initial reports hypothesise that this syndrome may be related to COVID-19.
It is critical to urgently and carefully characterise this clinical syndrome, to understand causality and to describe treatment interventions.
Together with our global clinical network for COVID-19, WHO has developed a preliminary case definition and a case report form for Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children.
I call on all clinicians worldwide to work with your national authorities and WHO to be on the alert and better understand this syndrome in children.
I will repeat this, I call on all clinicians worldwide to work with your national authorities and WHO to be on the alert and better understand this syndrome in children.
I thank you