- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, warned on Monday that “the worst is yet ahead of us” if the world doesn’t unite to fight the coronavirus pandemic.”
- “Without national unity and global solidarity, trust us, the worst is yet ahead of us,” he said during a press briefing.
- Tedros compared the virus to the 1918 flu that killed about 675,000 people in the US and tens of millions of people around the world. But he argued that the world now has the technology to prevent “that kind of crisis.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, warned on Monday that “the worst is yet ahead of us” if the world doesn’t unite to fight the coronavirus pandemic.”
“Without national unity and global solidarity, trust us, the worst is yet ahead of us,” he said during a press briefing.
Tedros compared the virus to the 1918 flu that killed 675,000 people in the US and tens of millions of people around the world. But he argued that the world now has the technology to prevent “that kind of crisis.”
“Let’s prevent this tragedy,” he said. “It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”
Ghebreyesus didn’t explain exactly how he expects the virus’ toll to intensify, but he argued that partisanship and political divisions are exacerbating the crisis.
“The cracks between people and the cracks between parties is fueling it,” he said. “Don’t use this virus as an opportunity to fight against each other or score political points. It’s dangerous. It’s like playing with fire.”
Countries around the world have begun to reopen as they see decreasing infection rates. But some of these places, including Singapore, have already seen their cases spike again.
President Donald Trump has urged governors to reopen their states despite experts’ warnings that doing so too soon would provoke a devastating resurgence of the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, has said a vaccine is at least a year to 18 months away.
As of Monday, the virus had infected almost 2.5 million people in more than 200 countries and territories and killed at least 166,000 people, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
As reported by Business Insider