“#Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant”, says @DrTedros in @WHO presser on #covid19.
“We're concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild. Surely we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril."
@DrTedros@WHO "Countries can and must prevent the spread of #Omicron with measures that work today”, he says.
"It's not vaccines instead of masks. It's not vaccines instead of distancing. It's not vaccines instead of ventilation or hand hygiene.
Do it all.
Do it consistently.
Do it well."
@DrTedros@WHO "In the past 10 weeks, COVAX has shipped more vaccines than in the first nine months of the year combined”, says @DrTedros.
"Most countries are using vaccines as fast as they get them. A small group of countries are facing challenges rolling out vaccines and scaling up rapidly…"
@DrTedros@WHO "The emergence of #Omicron has prompted some countries to roll out #covid19 booster programmes for their entire adult populations”, says @DrTedros.
"WHO is concerned that such programmes will repeat the #COVID19 vaccine hoarding we saw this year and exacerbate inequity."
@DrTedros@WHO "Let me be very clear: @WHO is not against boosters we are against inequity”, says @drtedros. "Our main concern is to save lives everywhere.
It is a question of prioritization.
Who gets what vaccines in what order?
The order matters."
@DrTedros@WHO "On the other hand, giving additional doses to people at high risk can save more lives than giving primary doses to those at low risk”, says @DrTedros.
“We will save the most lives by making sure health workers, older people and other at risk groups receive their primary doses"
@DrTedros@WHO “It's really quite simple:
The priority in every country and globally must be to protect the least protected not the most protected”, says @drtedros.
"If we end inequity, we end the pandemic.
If we allow inequity to continue, we allow the pandemic to continue."
@DrTedros@WHO “Transmission of #omicron is not going to be solved by vaccine”, says @Kate_L_OBrien. “Protecting people against that severe end of the disease spectrum is really critical. But we have to be doing all of the interventions” to reduce transmission of #omicron.
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien .@DrMikeRyan: "Make sure you have the health workers in place. Make sure you have the clinical triage in place. Make sure you've got oxygen supplies in place. Make sure that you're vaccinating the unvaccinated. Make sure you're taking every opportunity … to stop transmission."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "This is a highly transmissible variant”, says @DrMikeRyan. “It's hard to stop but you can take the heat out of the transmission by doing the simple things: protecting yourself, protecting your family, protecting your communities, avoiding crowded spaces, ...
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan ...wearing a mask, ensuring good ventilation, washing your hands. And the governments need to support communities and doing that by putting in place layered measures that support communities and doing that and getting the health system ready"
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "Health Systems are weaker now than they were a year ago”, says @DrMikeRyan
“Sometimes you can get up after the first punch, but it's very hard to get up after the second and third. ... We're relying on health workers in the health system that have been weakened by this response"
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan (If you watch a lot of these pressers you can tell the sense of urgency and force in everyone talking today.
Everyone who is paying attention is very, very worried about coming #omicron wave. Question is: Who is paying attention?…)
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan .@DrMikeRyan on “this idea that the only people not vaccinated are the ones who don't want to be vaccinated”:
"Frankly, I've not found that in my career. Most of the time, the system hasn’t found that person, or that person hasn't had enough confidence or access to the system."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "It's about who we miss”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"If you miss vaccinating a vulnerable older person with a primary dose of the vaccine, in any of these waves, that person is at much greater risk of being hospitalized or dying."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "People have genuine hesitancy, they have genuine concerns”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"We need to do better at offering people vaccines where they are on their terms, using people who can communicate with them."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan (I have to drop off the presser for an interview, but really you should listen to it in full.
Will add some more points later to this thread.)
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan Promised to add a few things from the rest of the presser (just listened to the audio).
Have to say I am always struck by Mike Ryan’s clarity and compassion, but yesterday it was even more fully on display than usual.
So here goes:
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan “No-one is criticising directly the decision of a government made in good faith to protect its own population. The issue is sometimes those decisions create inequity at global level”, @DrMikeRyan said.
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan “You cannot live in a vacuum.
An individual lives in a community, a community lives in a country and a country lives in the world. And any decision you make at any level can affect upwards or downwards”, he said.
“We're just asking governments to look at priorities."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "I don't want any person out there, who's offered a booster dose, who's vulnerable, to feel guilty about taking that dose”, @DrMikeRyan said.
"That is not what we're trying to do here."
@DrTedros@WHO@Kate_L_OBrien@DrMikeRyan "What @DrTedros is saying is there are millions of people who are completely unprotected in the world, and they are vulnerable. And they need to be given priority”, @DrMikeRyan said.
"It’s about priorities. And I think we can do both. Frankly, I think we can do both."
Concentrate on immunizing unvaccinated, vulnerable people, says @Kate_L_OBrien.
“That's where the attention, the energy, the innovations about how to provide better access, how to provide better trust, how to provide better communication” should go.
“We’ve been to this rodeo before, we know what happens when vaccine hoarding takes place. It does impact the ability of other countries to gain access to vaccines”, says @Kate_L_OBrien.
Says countries and manufacturers need to keep putting #COVAX and #AVAT first.
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@Eurosurveillanc One key finding: More than one in five cases cannot be linked to previous cases.
"This indicates that within 1.5 weeks from identifying the first case of #Omicron, there is already widespread community transmission in Denmark, which challenges further epidemic control."
117 people attended the party
99 had had two shots of mRNA vaccine (no-one boostered)
8 had recovered (unclear to me if they were vaccinated as well)
Everyone reported a negative rapid test before
81/110 (interviewed) people got Omicron, so the attack rate was a whopping 74%
As of December 13 "we detected nearly 70 other guests that were likely infected at the venue, and the Omicron variant
was detected in 53 of these through PCR variant
screening or sequencing"
“The doubling rate of Omicron in some regions is now down to less than two days and I'm afraid we're also seeing the inevitable increase in hospitalizations, up by 10% nationally week on week and up by almost a third in London”, Boris Johnson just said in his briefing.
UK now boostering anyone over 18 whose second jab is more than 3 months ago.
"From tomorrow, we're speeding things up even further by removing the 15 minute post-vaccination waiting time. And while we're at it from Monday, 12 to 15 year olds can book in for a second jab."
Johnson really leaning into boostering:
“We're jabbing in hospitals, we're jabbing in surgeries, we're jabbing in pharmacies and in pop-up centers, we're jabbing in shopping centers and on high streets, in football stadiums... Wherever you are, we'll be there with a jab for you."
Here is the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board adding its voice:
"If governments and the public continue to focus on the severity of the variant, which is yet to be determined, there is a real risk that we miss the opportunity to prevent and slow down the spread of Omicron"
"Optimistic predictions are based on limited evidence, bringing false comfort and lulling some countries into a state of inaction. We cannot make the same mistakes again.” gpmb.org/news/news/item…
“Curbing transmission of Omicron in the next few weeks is essential. Acting fast and erring on the side of caution is the right way forward. If we don’t act now, it will be too late.”
Okay, one last quote from yesterday’s @WHO presser (and then I'll stop before people think this is actually Mike Ryan tweeting here).
He was talking about the many questions about #omicron that had no clear answer yet:
@WHO “Those answers will come”, @DrMikeRyan said.
"But in the meantime, we need to be ready to deal with what is likely to happen, which is a large wave of cases, which may or may not be more or less severe, but which will in themselves generate pressure in the health system"
@WHO@DrMikeRyan “We need to do what we can to stop that, to reduce that pressure in the system”, he said. "We need to protect those who need to be protected as quickly as possible. And we need to prepare our systems for that."
New risk assessment from @ECDC_EU estimates that "based on modelling predictions, and depending on the growth advantage and level of immune escape, the Omicron VOC is likely to become the dominant variant in the EU/EEA within the first two months of 2022”
@ECDC_EU "Even if the severity of disease caused by the Omicron VOC is equal or lower than the severity of the Delta VOC, the increased transmissibility and resulting exponential growth of cases will rapidly outweigh any benefits of a potentially reduced severity."
@ECDC_EU "Rapid reintroduction and strengthening of NPIs is necessary to reduce the ongoing Delta transmission, slow down the spread of the Omicron VOC and keep the COVID-19-related burden manageable."