WHO Special Envoy for Covid-19 demands global cooperation in vaccine rollout
9 January 2021, 13:23
David Nabarro: Pandemic could rage on for at least another year
The WHO's Special Envoy on Covid-19 has called on world leaders to work together to defeat the pandemic.
Matt Frei spoke to Dr David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organisation and asked him for a date on when the world can return to normal.
Dr Nabarro insisted that it would be foolish to predict an end date: "We really are just unable to tell how this is going to roll out across the world.
"We do see surging coronavirus infections across the world right now and that makes me feel that globally this pandemic is set to run at least a year more, possibly longer."
Dr Nabarro insisted that global cooperation is key to defeating the pandemic. He argued that "the way the situation will be made more manageable will be through increasingly widespread immunisation," and this requires transnational support.
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"We need to have a central mechanism to help countries all to move in the same direction otherwise it'll be a very uneven world," he added, fearing that third world countries will be left behind
"I'm asking all world leaders to actually focus on all leaders working together," he told Matt Frei, reiterating that a failure to do so won't solve the problem.
He concluded that he doesn't want to see a world where some countries get ahead while others "wait for the crumbs" from first world nations.
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