Thread by @kakape

“This Friday marks two years since we said that the global spread of #covid19 could be characterised as a pandemic”, says @DrTedros at @WHO presser.
“Two years later, more than 6 million people have died."

@DrTedros @WHO "Although reported cases and deaths are declining globally and several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over”, says @DrTedros.
"And it will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."

@DrTedros @WHO "@WHO is concerned that several countries are drastically reducing testing. This inhibits our ability to see where the virus is, how it's spreading, and how it's evolving”, says @DrTedros.
"Testing remains a vital tool in our fight against the pandemic"

@DrTedros @WHO On to Ukraine:
“So far, who has verified 18 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, including 10 deaths and 16 injuries”, says @DrTedros.
"These attacks deprive whole communities of health care."

@DrTedros @WHO “More than 2 million people have left Ukraine and WHO is supporting neighboring countries to provide health care for refugees”, says @DrTedros.
Main issues: hypothermia, frostbite, respiratory diseases, lack of treatment for cardiovascular disease and cancer, mental health issues

@DrTedros @WHO “The only real solution to this situation is peace”, says @DrTedros.
“WHO continues to call on the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis and to allow safe, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance for those in need"

@DrTedros @WHO About 1000 health facilities of different size, hospitals, clinics, polyclinics etc either on frontlines or within 10 kilometers of frontlines”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"So, in effect, the health system is becoming engulfed in this conflict, engulfed in this crisis."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan "We've seen now that some hospitals are being abandoned by the authorities because they simply cannot function and there's an attempt to move hospital equipment and move doctors and nurses around”, says @DrMikeRyan.

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan "This is becoming an extremely complex health response”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"Sending supplies to hospitals is great but hospitals need power. They need clean water. They need engineers to be able to help. They need fuel."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan “It is the conflict that is driving this health crisis. And this health crisis will not stop, it will only get worse, unless we have ceasefire, unless we have peace”, says Ryan.
“This is putting bandages on mortal wounds right now and I think the world has to wake up to that."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan "The reality is that the conditions we see in Ukraine are the worst possible ingredients for the amplification and spread of infectious disease”, says @DrMikeRyan.
“It doesn't matter if it's COVID, doesn’t matter if it's polio, doesn't matter if it's measles…"

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan "You put that many people in desperation on the move, women and children pack together, people in basements, people stressed, people not eating, not sleeping: These are the conditions in which immune systems are weak, people's defenses are low”, says @DrMikeRyan.

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan “Infectious diseases can rip through populations like this. We've seen this and we continue to see this”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"Maybe the surprise is that this is on the European continent..., but these horrors are suffered by people all over the world every day, every week…"

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan "Sometimes I wonder whether we have reached the appropriate level of outrage for what we cannot seem to become outraged about elsewhere”, says @DrMikeRyan.
(Yup, I’ve wondered the same…)

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan Q about delta-omicron recombinant?
“We are aware of this recombinant. It's a combination of Delta AY.4 and Omicron BA.1”, says @mvankerkhove.
It has been detected in France, Netherlands, Denmark, she says, but at "very low levels”.

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Such a recombinant was to be expected, says @mvankerkhove. “We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant, we haven't seen any change in severity”, she says. "But there are many studies that are underway."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Ryan notes that @WHO has been tracking vaccine-derived polio in the Ukraine. (There was a case in a 17-month old girl from Rivne province last year)
“Therefore, the risk of that continuing to grow and continuing to spread, is there”, he says. “Measles is already there."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove On tuberculosis, Ukraine did a great job between 2005 and 2020, says @DrMikeRyan. “Ukraine managed to get its incidence of tuberculosis down from approximately 130 cases per 100,000 to about 40 cases per 100,000, which is tremendous progress”.

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove "This is the price of war”, says @DrMikeRyan.
"It's not just the price paid in wounds and the price paid in injuries or even epidemics. It is the fact that years and years and years and decades of progress in important public health areas like tuberculosis is lost."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove Q about the risk of refugees bringing covid.
“Let us be very careful with our rhetoric”, says @DrMikeRyan. “This always arises that in some way people fleeing the horrors of war are going to bring stuff with them. They're not. They're fleeing the horrors of war."

@DrTedros @WHO @DrMikeRyan @mvankerkhove “Those refugees fleeing are not going to drive numbers up in Europe”, says @DrMikeRyan. "Europe has plenty COVID as it stands and it's got to deal with that and Ukrainian refugees are not going to change the dial on that."