WHO's Fooling Who?

It seems ironic that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), because his pronouncements on the COVID pandemic are making me sick.

An increasing number of experts seem to agree that, even though Omicron won't be the last mutant strain of COVID by a long shot, its antibodies and its rapid spread will combine along with vaccinations and antiviral treatments to turn COVID into an endemic disease.  But Tedros - and, I might add, his minions at the WHO - insisted that the pandemic is "nowhere near over" after two years, even though Tedros began 2022 by saying that we have a chance to end the pandemic this year.

Which is sort of funny, because one of his minions, Michael Ryan, an Irish doctor who's been echoing Tedros' statements, just said early last week that "we have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we’ve been talking about" - such as vaccinating more people in poor countries.

So what is it, guys? Is this pandemic going to continue well into the 2020s or can we get it behind us by June or July?  Of this year, I mean? 

As long as the WHO, which Tedros leads,  keeps contradicting itself, it doesn't matter what message it's putting across.

I'm well aware that African countries, among others, need more COVID vaccines.  I'd be pleased to see President Biden donate all of the COVID vaccines in the U.S. that vaccine-resistant Americans don't want (i.e., most of them).  Tedros himself has been calling for more vaccines for poor countries as a way to end the pandemic  But he hasn't suggested how we could do that and end vaccine inequity, at least as far as I know.  He's mostly been pontificating without offering any constructive criticism.

But then, it's hard for your organization to provide constructive guidance when you let the Chinese government strong-arm you into abandoning an investigation of the origins of a virus that same government allowed to proliferate in its own country and then beyond. 

If Tedros can't offer any suggestions as to how we get out of this mess - it he just keeps talking in admonitory tones with a wag of the finger - maybe he should get out of the way.  Because he clearly isn't leading or following. 

Oh yeah, get vaccinated.