as their question so please let's start
to respect that doctor tell us please
thank you Thank You Terry
and good afternoon and thank you once
again for joining us in person in online
and I would like to start by
acknowledging International Women's Day
this Sunday this is a moment to remember
that around the world many women cannot
access essential health services and
continue to suffer disproportionately
from preventable and treatable diseases
but International Women's Day is an
opportunity not only to promote and
protect the health of women but to
highlight the vital role they play in
promoting and protecting the health of
all people globally women make up 70% of
the global health workforce but hold
only 25% of senior roles de Blasio is
committed to promoting gender equality
everywhere and especially in the health
workforce we're proud that we have
achieved gender equality in our senior
leadership team tablature headquarters
although we know we still have to work
to do in other parts of the organization
women are also playing a vital role in
the in the risk response to Kabat 19 and
we're proud to have many amazing women
leading our response in whu-oh including
Maria Sylvie Samia Ana Maria Maria
Angela Mary Pierre
Adriana Gabi Nika and many others
in the past 24 hours 2736
cases of kovat 19 were reported from 47
countries and territories there is now a
total of 98 thousand twenty three
reported cases of Corbett 19 globally
and three thousand six 380 does we are
now on the verge of reaching 100,000
confirmed cases as cases increase we are
continuing to recommend that all
countries make containment their highest
priority we continue to call on
countries to find tests isolate and care
for every case and to trace every
contact slowing down the epidemic saves
lives and buys time for preparedness and
for research and development every day
we can slow the epidemic is the epidemic
is another day hospitals can prepare
themselves for cases every day we slow
down the epidemic is another day
government's can prepare their health
workers to detect tests treat and care
for patients every day we slow down the
epidemic is another day closer to having
vaccines and therapeutics which can in
turn prevent infections and save lives
as you know last month WH er convened a
meeting of more than 400 scientists to
identify research priorities hundreds of
ideas were discussed and debated and
today we're publishing an R&D roadmap
which distills those ideas into a core
group of priorities in nine key areas
this include the natural history of the
virus epidemiology
vaccines Diagnostics therapeutics
clinical management ethical
considerations social sciences and more
the RMD roadmap focuses on research that
can save lives now as well as
longer-term research priorities for
vaccines and therapeutics it's vital to
coordinate research so that different
groups around the world complement each
other so WH ou can give better advice
and countries can take evidence-based
decisions that save lives
that's why WH o has developed a set of
core protocols that outlined standards
of how studies should be done and to
collect critical data so we can compare
apples with apples and pull data from
multiple studies France and South Africa
have already indicated they will use
these protocols for clinical trials and
we encourage other countries to do the
same we're also developing research
protocols to assess interventions for
this enfranchised communities such as
refugees and internally displaced
persons we're very encouraged by the
level of interest around the world in
accelerating research as part of the
response so far whu-oh has received
applications for review and approval of
40 diagnostic tests 20 vaccines are in
development and many clinical trials of
therapeutics are underway
even as we test therapeutics we need to
ensure that supplies of those medicines
are available should they prove
effective WH o has been monitoring the
potential risk of a disruption to
medicine supplies are the result of the
kovat 19 epidemic
China as you know is a major producer of
active pharmaceutical ingredients and
the intermediate products that are used
to produce medicines in other countries
whu-oh has focused on the most essential
medicines that are critical for primary
health care and emergencies including
antibiotics painkillers and treatments
for babbitt's hypertension HIV
tuberculosis and malaria wh ER is
working closely with industry
associations regulators and other
partners to monitor this risk and so far
we have not identified any imminent
specific shortages many manufacturers
either have alternative sources of
ingredients or had stocks to draw on
manufacturing has now resumed in most
places in China although some challenges
remain separately whu-oh has developed a
list of more than 20 essential medical
devices that countries need to manage
patients including ventilators and
oxygen supply systems access to medical
oxygen could be the difference between
life and death
for some patients but there is already a
shortage in many countries which could
be exacerbated by this epidemic whu-oh
has an existing working group with the
Gates Foundation the Clinton Health
Access Initiative and path and we are
building on that partnership to increase
access to oxygen we encourage every
country to review
WHS disease commodity package for kovat
19 to ensure it has the supplies it
needs including protective equipment and
medical devices all of this requires the
involvement of the private sector to
ensure countries can access life-saving
you have heard me talk about the market
failure for personal protective
equipment you heard me talk about the
need for a whole-of-government approach
and you have heard me talk about what
individuals can do to protect themselves
and others we look forward to businesses
to step up and play their part we need
you
double h o is working with the World
Economic Forum to engage companies
around the world and earlier this week I
spoke to more than 200 CEOs about how
they can protect their staff and
customers ensure business continuity and
contribute to the response as I keep
saying we are all in this together and
we will we all have a role to play facts
not fear reasons not rumors solidarity
not stigma I thank you thank you very
much dr. Tejas for this opening remarks
we will start with the questions here
from a room we'll have start with a
chant and question yes we don't use the
microphone if you can just switch it off
and talk a little bit crowded
the epicenter of the nanny in China
basically the Fox News Boston demanded a
formal apology from Chinese what's the
comment I'm not aware of the comment but
I think we've said numerous times in
previous conferences that diseases can
emerge anywhere on the planet and have
proven to do so Ebola emerges very often
in Africa the last pandemic emerged in
North America of h1n1 and corona virus
has in this case emerged in China so I
think the issue now is as the DG has
just said can we avoid blame culture and
can we move on to do the things we need
to do to save lives very pleased and
then
[Music]
it's very important an epidemic response
to understand your problem because
without understanding your problem
that's very difficult to fix it
so we've seen this China's numbers went
up very very quickly because they
started to look for cases the same
happened in Korea when Korea started to
do active surveillance and then you can
turn a corner so I think we need to look
at these data in terms of yes natural
epidemiology but also I think because
the Iranian system is switching on we're
seeing a much more all of government
approach as the deihi call for yesterday
there's a National Action Plan now
there's 100,000 workers committed to
this plan and we are going to see any
country in the face of an epidemic when
it looks for cases we'll find them and
if we call that a bad thing it is it's
it's a sad thing for the people who have
the disease but it's much better that we
understand the extent of the problem so
we commend a move towards more
aggressive targeted surveillance and we
hope that that will lead to the kind of
control measures that can help push this
by respect
too much one question here that we will
move online one question please hi my
name is Commission's have been on
implementing trouble yeah policies
against each other and in Japan part of
the Korean measures are taken to be a
retaliatory and so can you all tell us
about to box what the extent these
travel restrictions are meaningful and
do you have any concerns and concerns on
countries country the I think we've been
pretty clear on the issue of travel
restrictions for a very long time
and this should be very carefully
considered they should be public health
evidence driven they should be of short
duration and they should never be
carried out in the absence of a
comprehensive set of measures to contain
or control the disease there is a long
history unfortunately of countries
sometimes with tit-for-tat travel
restrictions that has happened in the
past since the advent of the ihr in fact
we've seen a huge improvement in that
and in transparency between countries
because we challenge countries who put
in place travel restrictions and we
challenge them to provide the public of
evidence I think again I think Japan and
Korea are both doing a fine job in the
face of this epidemic they've both
scaled up their public health operations
they're saving lives and I think we
should focus on that and not necessarily
on political spats over travel
restrictions it's very very important
that people understand that these types
of restrictions are not helping and in
that sense to overemphasize them is to
hurt the response but we do commend both
governments from making significant
progress in fighting this disease if I
could just say
to the contrary to that in the sense
that what we are seeing and what the
stories need to be focusing in is how
countries are helping each other and we
see a lot of examples of this
you know the DJ mentioned this research
meeting that took place on the 11th and
12th we've been talking since the
beginning of scientists communicating
with each other's clinicians talking to
each other on the phone sharing
experiences when the world didn't have
experience with kovat 19 we had merged
scientists teaching each other about
what they did to help patients with MERS
patients with SARS and I think there's a
lot of very positive stories here where
countries are helping each other we have
a Chinese delegation in Iran right now
we have people participating in sharing
and I think I think that there's a lot
of lessons to be learned in that
this is not the first outbreak where
this has happened before
w-h-o brings together scientists all
over the world public health
professionals women on the front lines
and I think I think those are stories
that also need to make the headlines as
well I would like to add to that in a
globalized world the only option is to
stand together and you know all
countries you should really make sure
that we stand together then in addition
to that as you know covet 19 is a common
enemy and the only way we can beat this
virus is when we stand together and
that's that has been the message from WH
all along and it is and it will be so we
call on all countries to stand in unison
because it's the United force that can
help us to be despite us as soon as
possible thank you very much we will now
go to some of journalists who are online
and I will remind everyone it's a star 9
if you are dialing in and clicking race
and if you are on zoom' we will start
with Romania we have Adria we Adrian can
you hear us
[Music]
so speaking about Europe from your
estimation do you think that during the
summer the spread of four we live in
will decrease and another thing I want
to know if World Health Organization
experts to all the countries persons
because we have some problems here
Romania another the criteria you said
when you consider a person suspected of
being infected it karana beers are these
standard procedures we lost you in the
middle can you please repeat a question
sorry for that
speaking about Europe from your
estimation do you think that during the
summer the spread of Kebede night in
will decrease and another thing I want
to know if World Health Organization
experts into all the countries some
procedures how to test a person and what
are the criteria you set when you
consider a person suspected being
infected with karana beers
I think Bria can take the question on
seasonality I think our regional
director to we've had multiple multiple
meetings with the European countries
across our whole region plus at the
European Union level with the European
Center for Disease Control our regional
director has been again in meetings
today with European health ministers
coordinating actions between countries
and we do not know yes what the activity
or the behavior of this virus will be in
different climatic conditions and we
have to assume that the virus will
continue to have the capacity to spread
and it's a false hope to say yes it will
just disappear in the summertime like
influenza virus we hope it does I would
that would be a godsend but we can't
make that assumption and there is no
evidence right now to suggest that that
will happen so we need to fight the
virus now not living hope that the virus
may disappear on its own
and on the issue of definitions there
are very specific case definitions that
have been released and updated on a
regular basis by WH o Berea may want to
go into the detail on the criteria so we
we do publish surveillance guidance on
our website as we do with all of our
technical guidance and we are constantly
looking at the evolving situation to
update those our case definitions are
focusing on people of interest who
should be tested and it's a combination
of a combination of factors it has to do
with where a person is or they are
living where they have traveled it has
to do with if they have symptoms or not
and what level of symptoms that they
have so our latest guidance is on the
WHI website and there's a very detailed
description of who should be tested
again to be clear when there is a high
index of suspicion from a clinician that
the clinical syndrome is consistent the
clinician is in a position to to request
a test the the test is not restrictive
the criteria are not restrictive mmm but
we have to be careful with this that if
every single person with a sniffle is to
be tested then we will run out of the
capacity to test so there are major
criteria but that final decision is very
much left in the hand of the attending
physician based on their instinctive or
clinical judgment and if there are
symptoms highly consistent with the core
with infection that physician may may
request that test or that is at least
whu-oh suffice so that's the other one
is not just in that index of suspicion
but also if you have a confirmed case
and you're looking at the contacts of
those cases they need to be tested as
well
the next question came through true
message because there was Steve from
Uganda from MBS TV in Uganda is asking
what measures have been put in place to
contain the virus in Uganda he says
Uganda being a poor country I think
proven its capacities over the last year
and a half and Uganda is invested
heavily in its preparedness for Ebola
and imported unfortunately Ebola twice
from Congo and contained that disease
without any further cases Uganda has a
lot of capacity and history in dealing
with severe emerging disease that spread
from person to person and require the
isolation of cases and the follow-up of
contacts and as the director-general has
been saying for years now this is about
preparedness you prepare for one disease
you prepare for all diseases preparing
for Ebola gives you capacities against
Cole Whitt preparing for flu gives you
capacities against other diseases and
what we hope is that these investments
that are being made by countries like
Uganda and we want to make under under
the new emergency preparedness division
here at whu-oh it's really important
that we focus on that other countries
Uganda is a strong sister but we are
concerned that there are countries who
have much weaker surveillance much
weaker health systems and we need to
continue to support all countries in
getting ready the DG may have a comment
on this was answer to a question from
Steve from Uganda and B s T V if Chris
is fine we can go to one more question
or two more questions from online Alain
Fletcher from health policy watch and
recover from down to earth India banjo
can you yes I can hear you can you hear
me my question is to dr. Maria Maria we
had only five cases to three days ago
but now we you know 30 31 cases but the
testing criteria in our country is
limited to such suspected cases or to
the ones who have been in contact with
the confirmed cases do you recommend
that as dr. Mike was saying that we
should now expand our criteria and the
clinician if he finds that it is
necessary we allowed
recommend the best and investigation
thank you for the question so we we put
out recommendations of what we feel is
most appropriate for testing and it is
important that that countries look at
these and they make an assessment of
what is best for their country our
guidance is out there to be aggressive
at finding all cases among people of
suspicion and ensuring that the context
of those cases are also tested so that
we could prevent onward transmission
decisions need to be made based on
capacity based on many different factors
but it really is important especially
early on as you said you have some cases
in in your country it's very important
that there's an aggressive approach in
the beginning that you look for all of
those cases because as case numbers
increase systems become overwhelmed and
so as much as can be done in the early
stages of this the better chance you
have to delay and to reduce and suppress
transmission thank you very much we will
now go to LA in Fletcher from health
policy watch Alain please go ahead and
sorry hey thanks for taking my question
but the World Bank announced recently
that well could it spring meeting on a
virtual format and that move was
applauded in many quarters as something
that would also save carbon emissions
and travel costs which are significant
for global organizations and many
private companies meanwhile have also
began to encourage teleworking as a
pre-emptive move towards reducing
section risks what's your message on
these topics and as Debbie Joe making
contingency plans for a virtual world
health assembly leave the DG to comment
on the World Health Assembly the I think
we advise a risk management approach to
all of these different gatherings of
meetings and and I think you know we are
entering a new era on this planet in
terms of our our
our movement and how we engage and how
we interact with each other
and it's wonderful to see that we have
alternatives now to necessarily having
to meet face to face all the time and if
there is a benefit to the planners then
that is great but we would obviously
rather not have Cove in 19 and the fear
and the disruption that it's causing but
we have to life has to go on our
economies our societies our communities
have to continue to work to live to
educate but I think we also need to
innovate and it's wonderful to see the
innovation in education the innovations
and communications the innovations in in
our capacity to continue doing the
things we do but maybe using alternative
ways of achieving the same ends and if
there are benefits to our planet for
that and to our society in general
that's great but I think we'd like to
get rid of cope with 19 to maybe to add
to that you know I know we will have
discovered 19 behind us and virtual
meetings should actually be considered
not because of kovat now but when there
is no kovat we have to challenge you
know all our meetings whether we really
need to meet in in-person so that's our
advice but in the middle of the kovat 19
now as Mike said we have to do the
assessment risk assessment and make our
decisions based based on that but the
virtual meetings
teleworking should actually be an issue
even when we don't have kovat around as
you said one added advantage is
minimizing the carbon footprint but
there will be other advantages too let's
go back to course
on assembly we still have time so we
will assess the situation
it's what we said based on the risk we
will we will decide we will let you know
thank you very much we will go back here
but we will take one or two from the
room because we want to go back to
online you will remember yesterday we
had issues and we didn't take questions
from our colleagues yes please Shoko and
then Jamie and then it will go back
online I said it yesterday that the its
geographically expanding and it's deeply
concerning but at the same time the most
concerning is out of the 88 countries
we're saying more countries affected
from the low-income with weaker health
systems and that's the most concerning
and we're working with all countries to
tailor the response they should they
should take based on their situation and
our focus will be to support countries
with weaker health systems there was a
question from Uganda earlier I fully
agree with what our general said on
Uganda its preparedness level has
increased significantly especially after
Ebola in in in DRC and we have seen how
it's it was it has been responding but
still we will continue to support
specially the
countries with recurrence systems to
help them to better respond that will be
our focus and that's why we had a
meeting with all au ministers a couple
of weeks ago to discuss about
continental strategy for preparedness
and also national strategy for
preparedness households I mean things
that they can do supplying bleach should
be wiping their faces touching their
faces with Kleenex isn't what kind of
things can people do to make themselves
I'll start with this and you may want to
supplement so there are it's very
important that everyone knows that there
are many things that they can do to
protect themselves and to protect their
families against kovat 19 and to protect
against any infectious threats the vs.
washing your hands you've heard us say
this many times and it's it's absolutely
critical that people wash their hands
and and there's a process for doing so
and using soap and water and and/or
using an alcohol rub that's the first
thing the second thing is respiratory
etiquette we see many people not
practicing respiratory etiquette and
this is really important this is very
simple you and your family and everyone
you know can do this
it's sneezing into your elbow it's
sneezing into a tissue and throwing this
into a closed bin and then washing your
hands making sure that you are
well-informed
you all know this very well in this room
but this situation is evolving quickly
we're learning new information every
single day and we're trying to
communicate that information to you as
quickly as possible making sure that the
information is accurate there's a lot of
false information out there there's a
lot of myths that are out there
that are not only confusing but
sometimes could be damaging so that's
important you can get your families
ready you can talk to your children you
can talk to your parents
you can talk to older people if you know
you have neighbors that don't live with
other people talk to them find out what
do they need to know what are their
fears as the DG has said many times
facts not fears let's address these
fears and turn this fear into some
positive action you can talk to your
employers you can talk to your
government what are you doing to get
ready how are we getting ready what's
the plan so there's a lot of things that
you can do to get yourselves ready so
that you can anticipate what may come
we've said this before that that there
is no eventualities
we are working with governments with
individuals to make sure that everything
is done to drive this down to slow
transmission to stop transmission so
that is possible and we're seeing that
in many countries but this it all
depends on the actions that we take now
the situation could get worse the
situation could get better we need to
prepare for different different
situations very much a lot you are next
to me please go ahead
thank you very much sorry can you dr.
taters a could you say something about
Switzerland hey we are here so if you
can talk about this and measures that
they have taken a what is your first we
express our gratitude in Switzerland for
their cooperation with us and all of the
other UN agencies in terms of our own
business continuity planning and little
things here it's a there's a big
international community here in Geneva
and we've been working very closely with
them and on how we deal with business
continuity going forward you can imagine
we have our own concerns to to be able
to continue to run our operations and in
whu-oh not only for our normal health
programs but to be able to continue
running a global operation here at
global nerve centers so we thank the
Swiss authorities for their continued
cooperation
I believe the Swiss authorities are
implementing measures that from their
pre plans preparedness plans and are
engaging very closely with other
countries and trying to coordinate
activity across many countries I think
that's been the challenge for everyone
in Europe right now is coordinating
activities across all of the nations of
Europe with such open borders and many
having slightly different policies
regarding mass gathering slightly
different criteria regarding testing and
I think that's caused a lot of people to
question why there isn't one standard
approach in every country but that's
impossible to achieve what we need each
country is making its own risk
assessments based on the risks it
perceives its openness its exposure and
its own vulnerabilities and we continue
to say this and what we will do is
always when asked sometimes even when
not asked offer advice to countries
regarding the the approaches they're
taking to
risk management so I don't have any
specific comments to make on the Swiss
response unless there's some specific
issue you're concerned with because it's
a good public health system responding
to the issues that it faces thank you
very much let's try to take a couple of
more questions from online to make up
for for yesterday Mary Ann Bennett is
from Hong Kong can you hear us thanks
for taking my call but I you know this
afternoon the University of Hong Kong
and they're on counterparts release a
study showing that the mortality rate
from commit 19 is much lower than the
one-day wh of a set of 3 3 / 4 percent
and it could be lower but its mortality
rate really important it was the
implication of that you know I mean what
does w-h-o think about studying the
mortality rate at this stage when we
don't have you know there are so many
unknowns
[Music]
studying mortality is very important in
any infectious disease in any disease
period and from the beginning our
biggest concerns our biggest questions
were around the transmissibility of this
virus and this and the severity of this
virus we we have been up here talking to
you about the difficulties in
calculating a mortality rate and what
that actually means especially early on
in an outbreak and there are many
studies that describe why this is very
difficult so you know there could be
simple arithmetic you know in terms of
what we say but the study that you're
referring to is a modeling study we work
very closely with the university of hong
kong they're strong collaborate they're
a collaborating Centre a WTO
collaborating Centre and there are many
studies that have tried to estimate what
mortality would look like if we consider
every one that may be infected with this
virus
you've heard us talk about zero surveys
and making sure that there's certain
population-based zero surveys that are
conducted and those are critical so that
we really understand the extent of
infection
in the general population I've mentioned
those studies are underway but it will
take some time to get those results in
the meantime we work with many different
modeling groups that helped us to try to
use mathematical models to estimate what
population infection may look like and
so what that study is is in fact is a
modeling study that's looking and making
an estimate of a mortality rate which i
think is about 1% in that study so we've
said before that the the true mortality
rate we don't know at this time what we
can say is how many people have died up
to this date but we do look to our
partners to to estimate mortality if we
take into consideration the estimated
you know number of people that may be
infected the mortality rate will go down
so it will take some time before we
actually get a true a true value but it
is a very important value for us any
deaths
is-is-is is significant and as we've
mentioned the steps that need to be
taken to make sure we slow down this
this virus will prevail save lives all
of the efforts towards containment will
save lives obviously a lot of
speculation the modeling and and the
attempt to understand is you know why so
few people under 40 have been clinically
owned well most of the people who are
really sick or between the ages of 40
and 90 and therefore when we look to
calculate a case fatality yes we could
add in a whole bunch of young people and
children who may be getting infected or
not getting sick and that and that's
important and the overall case fatality
will drop that may not necessarily
affect the experience of older people
and remember within this if you look at
the data from China based on the numbers
reported the actual case fatality for
people in the older age group goes up
with age and goes up significantly with
the presence of underlying conditions so
the actual age specific or condition
specific mortality could be much higher
than those numbers so the numbers could
be higher for four
individuals who are who are have
underlying conditions it could be higher
for and and equally we have an
assumption that children are maybe
getting infected or having mild
infections I personally have experienced
in the past influenza epidemics amongst
children with low nutrition children in
in compromised refugee type settings and
their mortality can be much higher
they're much more vulnerable they're
living in much more exposed conditions
we've seen what normal respiratory
infection can do in refugee camps and
anyone who's worked in refugee camp
knows how devastating viral disease can
be in those situations so while we can
make some assumptions and we hope for
the best that we hope I hope fervently
that we find that there are millions of
people who've been infected asymptomatic
ly and and the overall mortality is
lower we're not that's not something we
hope for but we have to look to those
and the DG keeps speaking about this
look to those around you who are most
vulnerable look to the people who are
older look to people with underlying
conditions look to our refugee
populations look to the undernourished
look to people who may have other
long-term infectious conditions and
that's what we need to do in order that
we put in place the necessary services
to protect and save their lives and
that's the approach but we do hope over
time that as we do the serology we find
that the overall fatality is lower thank
you very much let's try to take two more
questions we have a BuzzFeed if I'm not
wrong it's Zack injury but please
correct me hi thank you
yes Azaria huger and I've been seeing
some mixed reporting out of China about
whether people can get reinfected versus
being released from hospitals
prematurely can you provide clarity on
what is actually known at this point
about the potential for reinfection we
know is there's certain discharge
discharged criteria that are that are
used in China
in many countries and in fact our our
recommendation is that an individual
needs to have two negative PCR tests 24
hours apart what we what we've seen from
China there are some case reports of
individuals who will test negative and B
and and be clinically recovered but
after some days may test positive again
and what we what we need to understand
is in those situations in each of those
situations is the individual is it a
matter of the way that the test was done
and perhaps the sample was how the
sample was collected the performance of
the PCR test and if the individual just
sort of borderline positive negative or
whether they were reinfected that from
the evidence we have it doesn't indicate
that they've been reinfected it's likely
that they've just been there's been some
some virus persistence what we need to
also understand is just because people
are PCR positive if they've tested
negative and then test positive again we
need to understand if that's infectious
and so we need prospective studies of
individuals who have recovered over time
and following them after their recovery
to take repeated samples to understand
if they're still shedding and if if they
are infectious while agreeing with what
Maria said even in other countries there
is one concern we have hospitals have
been running very lean and mean
especially in high-income countries
creating a lot of efficiency and when I
say lean and men making it very close to
what they need during normal times you
know the number of beds they need and
and so on and that's why we see some
surprising in high-income countries and
when emergencies actually arrive then
you know triggering or expanding that
lean and mean the system becomes a bit
difficult and time time-taking
and that may even force some countries
to discharge patients early because the
system is adapted to Lin and min
approach so I think this is a question
for even the long term okay running
hospitals in a lean and mean fashion
could be okay during regular times but
how can we expand the capacity in few
hours when the need comes it's not
covered only by the way it could be
earthquake or it could be tsunami it
could be another another what do you
call it disaster whether it's man-made
or natural so I think we have to check
that approach we have especially in many
countries running hospitals in a very
lean and mean way and I know some
countries couldn't even have you know
isolation isolation facilities that can
accommodate even ten or twenty and it
shows how vulnerable we are
and the discharging and so on could
could the you know early good can
because it could happen because of that
try to take Thomas from Bloomberg who
was not able to ask questions a couple
of days in a row so Thomas if you hear
us please go ahead
hi I think I've been done made it I'm
not Thomas from Bloomberg it's Helen
brands all from Scott sorry for the
delay just realized I was unmuted my
question is about the clinical trials in
China for the therapeutics are you
getting any word yet about how those are
turning out is are there any you know is
there any chance of data assume I will
turn to my colleagues to finish that so
as you know Helen there are many
clinical trials that are currently
underway in China they're more than 200
registered you know on the clinical
trials list and and we know that they're
actively underway looking at different
therapeutics looking at traditional
Chinese medicine annamaria do you want
to comment on me or detail on that
please thank you very much
yes we have a very good collaboration
with researchers in China in fact they
even share with us the preliminary
information as they move forward with
the analysis they are planning to soon
start releasing and publishing some of
the results I just want to say that they
have done a great work in publications
we have counted about hundred and eighty
publications internationally have been
released and the information is
available to the public and there are
other 50 publications in Chinese
language that have been made available
when we are engaging with them now isn't
the translation of this information in
seeing what the numerous trials that
were conducted mean in terms of Public
Health and whether or not we need to
adjust our ideas for clinical trials
elsewhere and also and how can we learn
from the implementation of these trials
because there is a great expertise now
in China that we would like to build
upon so yes we are working with them
very closely and they are very for
committin transferring with us
just a supplement because there's more
to be done than just China we have
issued master protocols for clinical
trials for serology studies for others
and working under the leadership of a
vana Maryam Mary Pierre Razzie and our
chief scientist assume you we need to
bring all of that data together we
needed we're pulling together a data
monitoring board an independent board of
experts who will monitor and analyze
that data with us because we need to
ensure that all of the available
information regarding clinical trials is
pulled together so we have the best
possible assessment of all of the data
so we commend the researchers for all of
the work they're doing independently and
with us we commend those who are willing
to work on implementing this more
standardized approach and we believe by
doing that we will get to answers more
quickly and the the evidence for these
products will be much more solid and
much more reliable and we thank all of
those around the world at the research
level of governments and others for that
form of collaboration it is through this
kind of innovation and sharing that we
will get the answers more quickly than
we would otherwise we also have to look
beyond the issue of efficacy having an
effective drug or and we hope these are
effective we also have to ensure that
those who most need those drugs get them
and that is not the same as drug
efficacy we have to absolutely focus now
on equity and access we cannot have a
situation where people who need the drug
don't get it and people who don't need
the drug do we must find ways to ensure
we can scale up production of any drugs
that prove effective and we can ensure
those drugs are distributed on the basis
of need and the basis of benefits and
whu-oh is already working on mechanisms
by which we can achieve that working
with our partners both in the north and
the south
this was Anna Maria Hanna Gestapo who is
a unit head research and development
blueprint with our emerge
see program let's try a Chris one more
time thomas from bloomberg before we
finished for today Thomas can you hear
us can you hear us tomorrow we will
conclude for today thanks everyone for
watching us we will have audio file and
transcript and maybe dr. Telus will tell
us when do we see each other again on
Monday born weekend