Thread by @kakape

Regular #covid19 press conference from @WHO preceded today by bit with FIFA president Gianna Infantino. “Less than six months ago WHO and FIFA signed an agreement to work together to promote health through football”, says @drtedros. Announcing campaign to “kick out coronavirus”.

@WHO @DrTedros "More than 300,000 cases of #covid19 have now been reported to @WHO from almost every country in the world”, says @DrTedros. "That is heartbreaking."

@WHO @DrTedros “The pandemic is accelerating”, says @DrTedros.
Says it took:
- 67 days from 1st reported case of #covid19 to reach first 100,000 cases
- 11 days for the second 100,000
and just
- 4 days for the third 100,000.

@WHO @DrTedros And once more (amazing @DrTedros isn’t getting tired of this): “We need to attack the coronavirus with aggressive and targeted tactics – testing every suspected #COVID19 case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case, and tracing and quarantining every close contact."

@WHO @DrTedros #Physicaldistancing measures and message to stay home is important to slow down the spread of #SARSCoV2, says @DrTedros, but they are defensive measures. “You can’t win a football game only by defending.”

@WHO @DrTedros "We recognize that some countries are struggling with the capacity to carry out these offensive measures.” Says other countries have shown that mobilizing resources from less-affected regions in the same country is one way to increase capacity."

@WHO @DrTedros Also points out again that there are still many reports of health-care worker infections."Even if we do everything else right, if we don’t prioritize protecting health workers, many people will die because the health worker who could have saved their life is sick”, says @DrTedros

@WHO @DrTedros Mentions the SOLIDARITY trial, which WHO has launched “to generate robust, high-quality evidence as fast as possible”,
(I wrote up what you need to know about that trial here: sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/w…)

@WHO @DrTedros "Small, observational and non-randomized studies will not give us the answers we need”, says @drtedros. "The more countries sign up to the trial and other large studies, the faster we will get results on which drugs work and the more lives we will be able to save.”

@WHO @DrTedros .@DrTedros ends by mentioning that tomorrow is #WorldTBDay, says tuberculosis is "another respiratory disease that is both preventable and treatable, but which kills 1.5 million people every year”. (A hallmark of Tedros pressers, that he uses them to spotlight other diseases too)

@WHO @DrTedros Q about Olympic Games. @DrMikeRyan says WHO is feeding into deliberations on this. "Future of the games is clearly under very very close observation at the moment.” Says he believes a decision will be made soon. (FWIW, would be super surprised if not cancelled or postponed soon.)

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan “I just touched my face. I should not touch my face”, says @mvankerkhove as she starts to answer a question. Good reminder and yes, it’s hard. Even for professionals like her.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Q: Is Africa prepared to fight this disease? What needs to be done? "Countries in Africa have a history of dealing with large scale outbreak of infectious disease”, says @DrMikeRyan: cholera, meningitis, measles, Ebola.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove In his 25 years of working on health emergencies, @DrMikeRyan says he has found Africa “to be exceptionally resilient, hugely creative and capable of mounting responses right from the community level up”.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Says there are huge challenges too, including increased urbanisation, more refugees on the continent than on any other continent, huge population of HIV+ people.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Answering question about India, @DrMikeRyan says the future of #covid19 pandemic will be determined to great extent by what happens in populous countries like India. Says India led the world in eliminating two silent killers: smallpox and polio.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove “All countries have tremendous capacities”, says @DrMikeRyan, if there is aggressive, sustained public health action from community through to head of state. Calls it "exceptionally important that countries like India lead the world and show the world what can be done.”

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Another question about US officials calling #SARSCoV2 “Chinese virus” and criticising China’s early handling of the outbreak. @DrMikeRyan
says that "quite frankly is a distraction right now".
Says: "There is no blame in this. Only a future. And we choose the future. “

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove .@HelenBranswell asks about the reports that loss of sense of smell and taste is a symptom of #covid19. (two friends of mine who have tested positive report this too) @mvankerkhove essentially says @WHO is looking into this but hasn’t got an answer yet.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @HelenBranswell Q from Italy whether supermarkets should be closed and food delivered in hard hit areas? @DrMikeRyan says that is a decision for local health authorities but in most situations people have been able to visit local supermarkets with appropriate #physicaldistancing

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @HelenBranswell I also asked about long-term plans given that social distancing measures cannot be kept up indefinitely. @drmikeryan says @WHO is looking at this. Essentially goes back to pointing to countries like Singapore and Korea that have managed to contain outbreak without shutdown.

@WHO @DrTedros @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove @HelenBranswell The reason these countries managed to do that, he says, is their aggressive testing, contact tracing, isolating, quarantining etc. (This is basically the idea that once countries get cases down to very low level, these measures may be enough to contain #covid19)