“We need to quarantine politics and save lives.” This was the strong message from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in response to the attack on the organisation from United States (US) President, Donald Trump, earlier this week.
Ghebreyesus said tomorrow, April 9 would mark 100 days since the WHO was notified of the Covid-19 outbreak, during which time thousands of people had died.
During a press conference held tonight, he warned politicians to stop using Covid-19 for political gain. “We have lost more than 60 000 citizens of the world. Even one life is precious. There have been more than one million cases reported, is it not enough? We need to stop the disaster and keep politics out of the fight. There are many other areas where you can score political points.”
Ghebreyesus admitted that over the past three months he had been subjected to racist remarks from leaders calling him out for being black and a Negro. “I am just an individual and don’t have the time to care what others say about me. My only concern is to save lives. I have even received death threats and I don’t give a damn about it. They can personally target me, but our organisation will continue saving lives.” He didn’t pull any punches, naming Taiwan as one of the countries which had personally attacked his leadership of the WHO.
Pandemics in the past have been brought under control and Ghebreyesus said during the 60s Russia and the US had managed to set aside their differences and work together to eradicate smallpox. At the time the world had already suffered one million deaths and 15 million people were infected. Their collaboration helped eradicate the illness within ten years.
Now was the time to show leadership and he called upon the US and China to bury the hatchet and work together to find solutions. “If not, we will see the body bags adding up.”
Ghebreyesus admitted the WHO was worried about the African continent as they didn’t know what to expect from the virus and its behaviour. “There are still many unknowns about Covid-19 and we don’t know how it will behave in changed circumstances. It is contagious like a flu, but far more fatal.”
Since February more than 400 researchers and 130 scientists from around the world have been working to find a solution to the spread of and a cure for the virus.
Speculation about the infection of animals was addressed when the WHO confirmed that two dogs in Hong Kong, one cat in Belgium and a tiger in the Bronx zoo in the US had tested positive for Covid-19. It was suspected that the pets were infected by their owners but it was pointed out that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease. One study in Wuhan showed that cats could be infected, but played no major role in the Covid-19 outbreak, thus there was no need for panic or for animals to be mistreated.
