WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE

STORY: WHO / COVID-19 UPDATE
TRT: 6:21
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 17 MARCH 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Last Saturday, the 11th of March, marked three years since WHO first described the global outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. That was a significant moment that caught the world’s attention. However, from WHO’s perspective, the far more significant moment was six weeks earlier, on the 30th of January 2020, when I declared a public health emergency of international concern. It may not sound as dramatic or severe as “pandemic”, but a public health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alarm that WHO can sound under international law.”
3. Wide shot, press briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“We declared a global health emergency to spur countries to take decisive action, but not all countries did.”
5. Wide shot, press briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Three years later, there are almost 7 million reported deaths from COVID-19, although we know that the actual number of deaths is much higher.”
7. Wide shot, press briefing room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic.”
9. Wide shot, press briefing room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern. We are not there yet. Last week, there were still more than five thousand reported deaths. That’s five thousand too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“Last Sunday, WHO was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January, and taken down again recently. The data, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan, in 2020.
While it was online, scientists from a number of countries downloaded the data and analysed it.”
13. Wide shot, press briefing room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“As soon as we became aware of this data, we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with WHO and the international scientific community so it can be analysed. We also convened the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, which met on Tuesday. We asked researchers from the Chinese CDC and the international group of scientists to present their analyses of the data to SAGO. These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer.”
15. Wide shot, press briefing room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“Any and all data that relates to the study of how this pandemic began be made available immediately. And why that is so important is so that the analysis can be done by an international group of experts from around the world in the scientific space, that that can be done openly and transparently, and the data can be discussed and debated and so that we can better understand the findings and what it means.”
17. Wide shot, press briefing room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“The information that we have been made aware of - we were presented results by China's CDC as well as by researchers from around the world who downloaded this data.”
19. Wide shot, press briefing room
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“What the researchers were looking at were the environmental samples from Huanan market and amongst the samples that were positive for SARS-CoV-2, they looked and saw evidence of DNA of animals.”
21. Wide shot, press briefing room
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“And those animals included racoon dogs as well as a number of other animal species.”
23. Wide shot, press briefing room
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“This doesn't change our approach to studying the origins of COVID-19 - it just tells us that more data exists and that needs to be shared in full. We need to continue to collaborate with our Chinese colleagues and work together to understand all of the different hypotheses.”
25. Wide shot, press briefing room
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“What we look at as scientists as we follow the science, we follow the analysis that is done, and we look for these different types of clues that lead us into different directions. At the present time we don't have all of the information in front of us.”
27. Wide shot, press briefing room
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“If ever any of you have ever tried to do a jigsaw without seeing the actual picture that's behind the jigsaw, you know that the more pieces you have in the right place, the more you start to see an image. But you're never really sure of what you're building. You're never sure what one piece does until you put the piece in the context of all of the other pieces and then a picture starts to grow and your level of confidence as to what that picture is grows as you put more pieces in the right place. This is another piece of the jigsaw. It's an important piece, but it does not determine what the picture shows. But what it does do is allow science to do its work.”
29. Wide shot, press briefing room
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
We can only face shared threats with a shared response, based on a shared commitment to solidarity and equity. That is what the pandemic accord that countries are now negotiating is all about: an agreement between nations to work in cooperation with each other – not in competition – to prepare for and respond to epidemics and pandemics.”
31. Wide shot, press briefing room
32.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“It’s essential to emphasize that this accord is being negotiated by countries, for countries, and will be adopted and implemented by countries, in accordance with their own national laws. The claim by some that this accord is an infringement of national sovereignty is just plain wrong. Countries, and countries alone, will decide what is in the accord, not the staff of WHO.”
33. Wide shot, press briefing room

STORYLINE:

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I am confident that this year we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” but “we are not there yet.”

Speaking to reporters in Geneva today (17 Mar), Tedros said, “Last Saturday, the 11th of March, marked three years since WHO first described the global outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. That was a significant moment that caught the world’s attention.”

However, he continued, “from WHO’s perspective, the far more significant moment was six weeks earlier, on the 30th of January 2020, when I declared a public health emergency of international concern. It may not sound as dramatic or severe as ‘pandemic’, but a public health emergency of international concern is the highest level of alarm that WHO can sound under international law.”

The Director-General said, “We declared a global health emergency to spur countries to take decisive action, but not all countries did.”

He added, “Three years later, there are almost 7 million reported deaths from COVID-19, although we know that the actual number of deaths is much higher.”

“We are certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic,” Tedros said.

However, he said that last week, there were still more than five thousand reported deaths. That’s five thousand too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”

Tedros also said, “Last Sunday, WHO was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January, and taken down again recently.¬ The data, from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan, in 2020. While it was online, scientists from a number of countries downloaded the data and analysed it.”

He continued, “As soon as we became aware of this data, we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with WHO and the international scientific community so it can be analysed.”

The WHO chief added, “We also convened the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, which met on Tuesday. We asked researchers from the Chinese CDC and the international group of scientists to present their analyses of the data to SAGO. These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer.”

WHO’s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove spoke to reporters via a video link.

She said, “Any and all data that relates to the study of how this pandemic began be made available immediately. And why that is so important is so that the analysis can be done by an international group of experts from around the world in the scientific space, that that can be done openly and transparently, and the data can be discussed and debated and so that we can better understand the findings and what it means.”

Kerkhove explained, “The information that we have been made aware of - we were presented results by China's CDC as well as by researchers from around the world who downloaded this data.”

She said, “What the researchers were looking at were the environmental samples from Huanan market and amongst the samples that were positive for SARS-CoV-2, they looked and saw evidence of DNA of animals.”

Kerkhove added, “And those animals included racoon dogs as well as a number of other animal species.”

She also said, “This doesn't change our approach to studying the origins of COVID-19 - it just tells us that more data exists and that needs to be shared in full. We need to continue to collaborate with our Chinese colleagues and work together to understand all of the different hypotheses.”

The WHO’s Technical Lead said, “What we look at as scientists as we follow the science, we follow the analysis that is done, and we look for these different types of clues that lead us into different directions. At the present time we don't have all of the information in front of us.”

WHO’s Dr Michael Ryan told reporters, “If ever any of you have ever tried to do a jigsaw without seeing the actual picture that's behind the jigsaw, you know that the more pieces you have in the right place, the more you start to see an image. But you're never really sure of what you're building. You're never sure what one piece does until you put the piece in the context of all of the other pieces and then a picture starts to grow and your level of confidence as to what that picture is grows as you put more pieces in the right place. This is another piece of the jigsaw. It's an important piece, but it does not determine what the picture shows. But what it does do is allow science to do its work.”

The WHO chief Tedros reiterated, “We can only face shared threats with a shared response, based on a shared commitment to solidarity and equity. That is what the pandemic accord that countries are now negotiating is all about: an agreement between nations to work in cooperation with each other – not in competition – to prepare for and respond to epidemics and pandemics.”


He said, “It’s essential to emphasize that this accord is being negotiated by countries, for countries, and will be adopted and implemented by countries, in accordance with their own national laws. The claim by some that this accord is an infringement of national sovereignty is just plain wrong. Countries, and countries alone, will decide what is in the accord, not the staff of WHO.”