Director of World Health Organization says COVID-19 pandemic could be “over in two years”

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Published by [email protected] at August 23, 2020

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Posted: Sunday, August 23, 2020. 4:59 pm CST.

By BBN Staff: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization says that it is possible for the COVD-19 pandemic to be over in a matter of two years, reports the BBC.

Speaking at a virtual press conference in Geneva on Friday, the WHO Director-General compared the current pandemic to the Spanish Flu pandemic back in 1918, noting that the Spanish Flu killed some 50 million people, while COVID-19 has only killed just over 800,000, (around 3.5 percent of the over 23 million confirmed infections).

Ghebreyesus acknowledged that the state of global connectedness gives the virus a better chance of spreading, but also that advances in technology could see the world getting over the pandemic in less time.

Responding to a question about corruption with regard to personal protective equipment (PPE), Ghebreyesus said that such behaviour was “unacceptable,” and the BBC quotes him as saying “However, corruption related to PPE… for me it’s actually murder. Because if health workers work without PPE, we’re risking their lives. And that also risks the lives of the people they serve.”

Comparatively, COVID-19 has had a considerably lesser impact than the Spanish Flu, which affected an estimated 500 million people in two years. Now approaching its 9th month with only 23 million infections, the COVID-19 pandemic’s major emphasis has been the economic impact which includes leaving millions of people unemployed and causing thousands of businesses worldwide to close down.

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