The WHO media brief - 3/4
Full video: Youtube
Warning: This is my personal quick note when following the WHO livestream. It is not complete, lots of mistakes, but basically have a structure and message. I leave it here for those who want to quickly learn about media brief of the WHO.
The WHO MG & IMF MG:
- Live and likelihood: social welfare and food; avoid economic collapse.
- Reinforce a message about containment:
- Find, test, isolate, treat. Communication and information.
- Subsidy for health workers and facilities.
- Healthcare for anybody regardless of status.
- Take care of the vulnerable population. Rapid test. Domestic violence.
- Update about finance support from countries, partnerships and individuals;
- IMF note with 3 points: 1. Never seen anything like this situation. Need to unite to tackle this situation; 2. Hard hit and less resources. 3. 1T: Mobilizing resources with the world bank.
Questions
- CNBC: The fatality rate in Italy and the US are higher than Asia. Is there anything that American use that make this disease more severe? > Difficult and misleading. Challenging when comparing data between countries. Not enough evidence. Two factors could drive a fatality rate, e.g. age profile and underlying condition. Another overloaded system could lead to more deaths. A significant difference of countries when collecting data, especially when the healthcare system is overloaded. Important data: Profile of ICU patients.
- Africa: Hunger might kill faster people than a virus. Can you guarantee? > IMF: Substansial finance support by two ways: 1. Scale up finance support for emergencies. 2. Extend up credit of Africa.
- Economic impact on SouthEast Asia? Examples like Indonesia > IMF: Summarize a situation and proposal to support the country.
- Italy: About antibody testing? > Several molecular and serological tests used. Example of practices used in countries. Briefly about how they use it and current progress. It has been done very quickly in four months thanks to a full GNOME shared by China. Need to be very careful to use these tests. WHO welcomes innovation but needs more cautiousness.
- Geneva: AFP: Request specific information about more and more young adults in the ICU? > Overall, most people in ICU/ severed disease are old and/or underlying disease. But in other countries, it has been seen that people under 30s, 40s, 20s. It is too early to conclude when more clinical data is collected. There is a spectrum of younger people. Reinforce a message of transmission.
- The role of IMF > Observation of IMF about how central banks and the finance ministry step up. The role: 1. Rapidly step up for countries vulnerable in this situation; 2. Think of what might be needed but not be noticed by the world.
- Bloomberg: WHO: How restriction could be a norm till the next year or 18 months > Need an investment for containment and individual power. Work hard with a comprehensive approach to unlock safety for the economy; IMF: Is there any assurance about China?
- Bangladesh > The WHO update about the regional situation.
- South China Morning Post: Question about the use of masks? Any plan about using a surgical mask? Update about the use of masks from HongKong Team > Perspective of the WHO: N95 and surgical mask should be prioritized for frontline health workers, people with illness and care takers. No evidence about the effectiveness. Wearing a mask could not negate physical distancing and isolation. Talk about WHO believes about the main driver of the pandemic, e.g. symptomatic with coughs and sneezes.
Tagged #summary.