The World Health Organization declared the COVD-19 emergency is over, ending a three-year designation it first adopted in January 2020.
The health body began using the word “pandemic” in March 2020 to alert the world to the perils of the virus, though the term bears no legal meaning.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
“For more than a year the pandemic has been on a downward trend.
“Yesterday the emergency committee meet for the fifteenth time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice.”
“It’s therefore with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency,” he added.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, the move doesn’t trigger changes in government funding or services, according to Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, who has advised the WHO.
“The global public and political leaders have long moved on…” Gostin said.
Watch the briefing below:
According to WHO-compiled figures, the pandemic has (been associated with) the deaths of nearly 7 million people and infected 765 million.
Still, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus could not leave the fearmongery alone, warning that: “That does not mean Covid-19 is over as a global health threat.”
So be afraid still America, and wear that mask in your car when you’re alone…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/05/2023 – 09:55
