World Health Assembly – May 24, 2021

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, the Director-General of The World Health Organization (WHO), addressed the World Health Assembly on May 24th and stated “the pandemic is not over, and will not be over, until virus transmission is controlled in every country. That’s because the longer the virus spreads uncontrolled, the more opportunity there is for new variants to emerge”. “So far, no variants have emerged that significantly undermine the efficacy of vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics”, Dr. Tedros said “but there is no guarantee that will remain the case”.

Is this a doom and gloom blog? Kind of, right? But let’s weigh it out and fact check! In the United States, we are nearing a level of vaccinated people to possibly enjoy “herd immunity” by July, according to our experts. That said, everyone isn’t as excited about the vaccine as others are and the vaccine numbers are slowing down. Maybe it is time to encourage our friends and families to get vaccinated.

Researchers are conducting trials on young people as young as 6 months old to see if vaccinations are an option for them in the near future. We cannot sit on our hands and wait for others to do our dirty work! Get vaccinated, encourage others to get vaccinated and maybe, just maybe, we will not see another pandemic in our lifetime, maybe! Stay informed, stay well and stay tuned!