Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization WHO, speaks at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland on December 20, 2021. GENEVA, Jan 24, Reuters - The head of the World Health Organization urged countries to work together to bring an end to the disease, saying that they now have all the tools available to do so.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is speaking at a press conference alongside Germany's development minister Svenja Schulze, as he stated that the COVID 19 epidemic is now entering its third year and we are at a critical juncture.
We need to work together to bring the acute phase of the epidemic to an end. We can't let it continue to drag on, lurching between panic and neglect. Tedros said on Monday that Germany had become the agency's largest donor, without giving details. The United States has made the biggest financial contribution among member states to the organisation.
Schulze said that Germany, which took over the G 7 presidency, has a top priority to end the epidemic and called for a massively accelerated, truly global vaccine campaign in order to do so.
The WHO Executive Board meeting in Geneva is where key aspects of the U.N. health agency's future are to be discussed, including Tedros' bid for a second term and a proposal to make the agency more financially independent.