This photograph taken on March 5, 2021 shows the flag of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
The coronavirus remains a global health emergency, the World Health Organization chief said Monday, after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflexion point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.
Speaking at the opening of WHO’s annual executive board meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “there is no doubt that we're in a far better situation now” than a year ago — when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak.
But Tedros warned that in the last eight weeks, at least 170,000 people have died around the world in connection with the coronavirus. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.
"We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level,” he said.
Tedros' comments came moments after WHO released findings of its emergency committee on the pandemic which reported that some 13.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered — with nearly 90% of health workers and more than four in five people over 60 years of age having completed the first series of jabs.
“The committee acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic may be approaching an inflexion point," WHO said in a statement. Higher levels of immunity worldwide through vaccination or infection “may limit the impact” of the virus that causes COVID-19 on “morbidity and mortality,” the committee said.
“(B)ut there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future,” it said. While Omicron versions are easily spread, “there has been a decoupling between infection and severe disease” compared to that of earlier variants.
Committee members cited “pandemic fatigue" and the increasing public perception that COVID-19 isn't as much of a risk as it once was, leading to people to increasingly ignore or disregard health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing.
As the need for COVID-19 testing increases, so does the price of the tests themselves. An agreement with The White House and several major companies to sell the tests at a lower cost has now expired, sending prices up as retailers struggle to keep kits on shelves. Dr. Thomas McGinn, executive VP of physician enterprise at Common Spirit Health, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
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Electric vehicles are quickly becoming an accessible way for consumers to slash emissions as legacy automakers begin to electrify their fleets and world leaders including President Joe Biden push for broad EV adoption. But consumers have concerns about EV range, the availability of charging stations, and more. What if it were both helpful to consumers — and feasible from a climate change standpoint — to keep hybrid models that run on gas on the market? Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute & Toyota Motor Corporation's Chief Scientist joins Cheddar Climate to discuss his team's research about 'carbon return on investment,' how Toyota is electrifying its fleet, and more.
According to a recent analysis compiled by The Washington Post, more than four in 10 Americans lived in areas hit by climate-related disasters in 2021. Jonathan Porter, Chief Meteorologist at AccuWeather, joined Cheddar Climate to discuss what this means and what can be done to prevent severe weather events from becoming even worse.
It's a painfully cold week across a large portion of the U.S. with more than 185 million Americans experiencing below-freezing temperatures on Monday and 10 million of them dealing with dangerous sub-zero temps.
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Shoulder injuries are one of the most common orthopedic injuries – and they're also one of the most commonly ignored. But chimpanzees, with whom we share nearly 99% of our DNA, don’t encounter the same issues we do. So why are human shoulders such a design disaster? Well, we can trace the answer back to a very particular moment in our evolution.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
Jake Carbone, senior data analyst at InfluenceMap joins Cheddar News to talk about a new report by The Guardian and InfluenceMap that reveals how companies are creating fossil fuel ads designed to look like Google search results.
