The World Health Organization has released a series of explanatory videos, using animations, on its YouTube account to emphasize the importance of vaccine accessibility for all people on Earth and the consequences of its unavailability in some poor countries. In the instructional clips, the organization raised the slogan "If the vaccine doesn’t reach everywhere… the pandemic won’t go anywhere," meaning it will remain forever.
The videos stressed that the failure of some people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine could lead to increased virulence of the virus in the form of new variants targeting the unvaccinated, thus repeating the cycle of resurgence and keeping the world trapped in the same deadly pandemic that has felt like a nightmare for nearly two years.
On Thursday, the Russian news agency reported that Russia has recorded some cases of a new variant of the coronavirus believed to be more contagious than the Delta variant. The agency quoted Kamil Khafizov, a senior researcher at the consumer protection agency, as saying the "AY.2.4" variant could potentially spread widely. This may result in an increase in new COVID-19 cases, which have already reached record levels in Russia, prompting the announcement of a new lockdown in the coming days.
The coronavirus has caused the deaths of at least 4,919,395 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the emergence of the disease at the end of December 2019. The WHO announced on Thursday that the virus has resulted in the deaths of between 80,000 and 180,000 of the 135 million healthcare workers worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 until May of this year.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated: "That is why it is crucial to prioritize the vaccination of healthcare professionals." He clarified that approximately 40% of healthcare workers globally have received both doses of the vaccine, noting that data from 119 countries indicate that, on average, two out of every five healthcare workers worldwide have been fully vaccinated.
At least 241,957,600 people have confirmed infections since the virus appeared, with the vast majority recovering, although some continue to experience symptoms weeks or even months later. The figures are based on daily reports from health authorities in each country and exclude subsequent revisions by statistical agencies that indicate far greater death tolls.
The World Health Organization considers the excess mortality rate directly or indirectly related to COVID-19 and estimates that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than the official count. A significant number of less severe cases or asymptomatic cases remain undetected, despite the intensified testing in many countries.
