Even as Covid rates continue to drop globally, the Biden administration and its foreign counterparts announced they will hold a second global COVID-19 summit to discuss a path out of the “acute phase of the pandemic” and get ready for “future health threats.”
The White House said in a news release Monday that the emergence of new Covid strains must be addressed globally. Therefore, governments, NGOs, businesses, and philanthropists worldwide are being urged to “redouble” their efforts and deepen the cooperation and coordination of their uniform pandemic response, such as getting a Covid shot in every arm.
The statement reads,
The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling COVID-19 worldwide. Together, we can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and protect those at the highest risk with vaccinations, testing, and treatments, actions to minimize disruption to routine health services, and through support for the ACT-Accelerator multilateral mechanism.
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a global initiative aimed at accelerating development, production, and “equitable access” to Covid tests, treatments, and vaccines.
According to its website, the initiative was launched at the onset of the pandemic, in April 2020, and brought together governments, scientists, businesses, civil society, and philanthropists and global health organizations (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEPI, FIND, Gavi, The Global Fund, Unitaid, Wellcome, the WHO, and the World Bank).
The statement continues,
We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also for future health crises. To help achieve these goals, we urge all countries and stakeholders to pledge to take urgent actions to create the systems we need to end the acute phase of COVID-19, save lives, and build better health security and health systems.
Included in the joint statement with the United States are Belize, which chairs the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) organization; Germany, as holder of the G-7 presidency; Indonesia, as holder of the G-20 presidency; and Senegal, as the African Union chair.
According to the statement, the summit will build on efforts and commitments made at the first global Covid summit on September 22, 2021, such as getting more people vaccinated, sending tests and treatments to the highest-risk populations, expanding protections for healthcare workers, and raising funds for future pandemic preparedness.
The meeting will be held virtually on May 12, 2022.
The announcement comes amid a decline in Covid cases and deaths worldwide, as seen from the John Hopkins University Covid tracker. As seen from the CDC statistics, in the United States, the rate of Covid cases has remained steadily low since mid-March. The agency’s data also shows that Covid-connected hospitalizations and deaths have seen a rapid drop since January-early February, when Omicron passed its peak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released in January found that the Omicron variant is far milder than the Delta variant, since it was 91-percent less likely to kill those infected. The study also revealed that no one infected with Omicron has been recorded as requiring mechanical ventilation.
Omicron’s two youngest “daughters,” subvariants named BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1, accounted for 99.2 percent of cases sequenced in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) weekly epidemiological update from last week. The update also noted that “all the regions are showing decreasing trends both in the number of new weekly cases and new weekly deaths.” Both of the subvariants are said to be more transmissible yet even more mild than the “original” Omicron.
Joe Biden ran for office promising to “shut down the pandemic” in the United States and abroad.
During the first global Covid summit, the president pledged to deliver at least 1.1 billion Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses for global use by the end of 2022. That effort is part of the global commitment to “fully vaccinating at least 70 percent of the population in every country and income category with quality, safe, and effective vaccines,” according to the White House.
So far, the United States has shipped more than half of that.
In March, the president asked that Congress earmark $22.5 billion for “immediate” Covid response measures. Of those funds, $5 billion would go toward the global Covid response, most of all vaccination efforts.
U.S. Senators agreed to give Biden $10 billion, nixing the global funding request.
While the Biden administration is buying and shipping Pfizer shots worldwide, it appears that they are not as safe or effective as advertised.
The protection against Covid infection wanes within mere months, as observed by the CDC. The FDA is now signaling that all Americans will likely need to take a fourth dose by fall.
Moreover, as appears from the CDC data, the vaccines have “negative efficacy,” meaning that vaccinated and boosted people are more likely to get infected with Covid than their unvaccinated peers.
Many reports, such as this 145-country study, hold that the Covid shots make Covid infections and deaths more likely.
According to some non-establishment doctors, this negative efficacy of the Covid shots is linked to so-called vaccine-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (VAIDS). The syndrome weakens the immune system, which is responsible for protecting against all types of disease-causing pathogens and cancers. The damage accelerates with each additional booster, the doctors believe.
