Sharjah24 – Reuters: Some countries should have listened more carefully when the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency in January 2020, Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, said on Monday (March 8).
The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern, its "highest level of alarm", on Jan. 30 and described the coronavirus as a "pandemic" for the first time on March 11.
Asked if the organisation should have used the term "pandemic" sooner, Ryan said: "Maybe we needed to shout louder, but maybe some people need hearing aids."
Ryan also said that the body would not recommend the use of vaccine certificates as a requirement for travel as access to vaccines was still limited and not equitable worldwide.
Commenting on the use of so-called "vaccine passports", he said they could cause "unfairness to be further branded into the system."
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