WHO Bio Hub System Will Leverage Innovations For Faster Response, Says WHO Chief

During the New Year's address, WHO Chief spoke about WHO BioHub System to leverage innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wearing a protective facemask, attends a press conference on December 20, 2021 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. | AFP

New Delhi: As the world is into its third year of the pandemic, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus restated that the world would have to work together to end Covid-19 in the year 2022 in his New Year's address. 

He highlighted that Covid-19 is not the only health threat the world's people will face next year, Tedros said in 2022 with the Member States to build well-financed health systems, strengthen preparedness and ensure the equitable distribution of health tools.

He further stated that to help prepare the world for future epidemics and pandemics, we established the new WHO BioHub System for countries to share novel biological materials. And we opened the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, to leverage innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response, WHO chief added. He said the WHO Bio Hub System, offers a reliable, safe, and transparent mechanism for WHO’s 194 Member States.

He said the development of a new, binding accord between nations on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, will be a key pillar.

On Friday, Tedros said "while no country is out of the woods from the pandemic, we have many new tools to prevent and treat Covid-19. The longer inequity continues, the higher the risks of this virus evolving in ways we can't prevent or predict. If we end inequity, we end the pandemic".

He added that this should be the time for politicians to keep aside politics and see what is best for the people. 

"This is the moment for leaders to banish the politics of populism and self-interest, which are derailing the COVID-19 response and threaten to undermine the response to the inevitable next disease X."

The world has recently witnessed a new variant of Covid-19, which has been detected in South Africa, as 'Omicron'. The WHO has classified Omicron as a 'variant of concern'.

He reiterated that "we need all countries to work together to reach the global target of vaccinating 70 per cent of people in all countries by the middle of 2022."

Earlier, during a press briefing, Tedros had said at a media briefing that "2022 must be the year we end the pandemic". The remarks were made after the WHO gave emergency use authorisation to the ninth vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under license from Novavax.