Last week, the World Health Organization declared the end of the public health emergency caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, scientists and health experts agreed that this does not mean the end of the global epidemic, which will remain on the back of the earth for years to come. Also, the announcement came at a time when it was not clear whether the governments of the countries of the world had learned enough from the outbreak of the coronavirus to be ready to respond to the outbreak of any bacterial or viral epidemic that might lead to terrible death around the globe. The global organization, which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, announced last week that COVID-19, which has killed more than 7 million people over the past three years, no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. The scholars believe that the organization’s decision deserves to be welcomed. Because he admits that the acute phase of the Corona crisis has actually ended; This is the stage when the number of deaths due to the virus in January 2021 reached more than 100,000 deaths per week. Last week, the number of deaths decreased to about 3,500 deaths per week. However, scientists warn that the immunity provided by Covid-19 vaccines against infection, or its complications, is very short. And after the majority of the world’s governments canceled the precautionary measures aimed at preventing the transmission of infection among the population, it can be said that waves of viral infections will be inevitable in the coming days. Yesterday, the British newspaper “The Guardian” quoted Professor Stephen Griffin, a lecturer at the University of Leeds, as saying that the matter is not as simple as making any competent authority close a switch to announce that the global epidemic has ended, especially if it is a global epidemic by these horrible standards. Professor Susan Michie, a professor at the University of London, said: Regardless of whether Covid-19 is a global pandemic or not; There are a number of countries that continue to suffer from large waves of infection, and thousands of them die every week. She added that this situation will continue in the near future, in the absence of any official efforts to eradicate the epidemic. This also means that there are no coordinated international efforts to confront any new viral variants that may appear in the future. “This bittersweet announcement that the global pandemic is over sounds like raising a white flag of surrender, more than a cause for celebration,” said University of Texas Professor Benjamin Newman. And he added that despite the great progress made in confronting the global epidemic; The WHO decision suggests that COVID-19 is more of a political reality than a medical condition.
Experts agree that although the peak of the global epidemic has passed; Its effects will remain deep and will last for a long time. They added that the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, still kills a person every three minutes; Meanwhile, millions of those who have recovered from it suffer from the consequences of “chronic Covid” disease, which makes them unable to carry out their usual life tasks. Also, the virus still poses a serious threat to the elderly and those with chronic diseases. This will be an annual danger added to other seasonal diseases, such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus infection, and other diseases that ravage humanity every winter. Scientists and governments must invest in preparing their health systems so that they can serve more people each year. There must be greater cooperation between countries, to ensure that all countries are ready to face any similar catastrophe in the future, whether the cause is new mutants of the new Corona virus, or new viruses or germs that humanity is not familiar with. The last possibility is what terrifies scientists the most. Because with the return of international travel to its levels prior to the outbreak of the Corona virus, the possibilities of new viruses appearing increase, and they may be able to transmit their infection to humans. Before the outbreak of Corona, the world witnessed the outbreak of the Ebola virus, the Middle East respiratory virus, and the SARS virus. The outbreak of each of them raised fears that it would become a global pandemic, even if it did not reach the severity of the Covid-19 virus. Unfortunately, it seems that most governments are preoccupied with other things than preparing for a possible new epidemic.
The government of Victoria Province, the second largest province in Australia, after New South Wales, offered compensation of up to $5 million to residents of 9 residential towers in the provincial capital, Melbourne, for the damage suffered by residents who were surprised by police forces imposing a complete closure on the towers, and preventing residents from leaving them for any reason. , during the second wave of the Covid-19 virus attack in the year 2020. About 3 thousand people were residing in those towers when it was decided to close them without warning. A number of them have filed a complaint against the Victorian government alleging that they were unlawfully detained for 14 days and threatened with physical harm if they tried to leave their towers. The Victorian government made the aforementioned offer in the hope of settling the matter before the stage of issuance of judgments in this regard. However, any settlement must be approved by the Supreme Court. One senior resident said they would first want an apology from the county government, before a financial settlement. According to the government’s offer, the $5 million will be divided among adults equally, while the child’s share will be half that of the adult. The costs of the lawsuit will not be deducted from the compensation amount, but the government will pay it. However, the Victorian government has repeatedly refused to make any apologies, even though its regulators have recommended it to mitigate the psychological damage and depression caused by the lockdown. The government performance watchdog, Deborah Glass, concluded in an investigation she conducted in 2020 that the county government accused the residents’ human rights of closing their towers without warning. The government also did not follow health measures. The health officials had approved the lockdown decision in a meeting on July 4, 2020. However, they expected the government to give residents 36 hours before enforcing the lockdown. However, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews held a press conference at 4pm the same day and announced that the lockdown would begin immediately. The majority of the population did not hear of the prime minister’s decision before the arrival of the police forces who implemented the closure. Andrews said yesterday: «We made difficult decisions. But those decisions saved lives. It is beyond doubt.”
“GSK” eliminates “Pfizer” in the race for “syphilitic vaccine”
The US Food and Drug Administration has finally approved the world’s first vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for people 60 years of age or older. Scientists around the world applauded this great progress in confronting a dangerous virus that kills thousands of people annually. Although RSV causes symptoms similar to those of the common cold, it can be fatal for the elderly and children. And the US authorities say that this virus causes the death of between 6 thousand and 10 thousand adults annually in the United States, all of them over the age of 65 years. It also causes between 60,000 and 160,000 hospitalizations annually. Those at greatest risk are those with chronic respiratory diseases, asthma and heart failure. The “Arixvi” vaccine, which was invented by the scientists of the British giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), was approved based on the data of the third phase of its clinical trial, which showed the ability of the new vaccine to reduce the risks for those over the age of 60 by about 82.6%, and reduce the odds of The patient’s health worsened by up to 94.1%. Pharmaceutical companies have been trying for 60 years to devise an effective vaccine against this deadly virus. And scientists of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer have reached a vaccine for the respiratory syncytial virus for adults and infants. The US Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to announce its decision regarding this vaccine during the current month, and Pfizer said in November 2022 that its aforementioned vaccine proved 81.8% effective in preventing infant infection if the pregnant mother was vaccinated before birth. As for those who reached the age of 60 years and over, the effectiveness of the aforementioned vaccine was 66.7%.
Moderna announced that a similar vaccine developed by its scientists has reached 83.7% efficacy, and can prevent at least two symptoms, namely cough and fever, in adults. The French company Sanofi and the British AstraZeneca say that a vaccine they created for this purpose was 74.5% effective in preventing infants from contracting this disease.
