Helen BranswellVerified account

2. @DrTedros said no country or region is yet out of the woods when it comes to #Covid, pointing to the surge in cases in Europe where vaccination rates are reasonably high. He urged people to continue to take precautions against Covid, even if they are vaccinated.

3. @DrTedros points to next week's special session of the World Health Assembly — the WHO's governing body — to try to come up with a treaty or instrument designed to prevent or mitigate future pandemics. Tedros said he is heartened that there now appears to be a broad consensus.

4. @DrTedros didn't indicate what that consensus has coalesced around. I think there may be substantial differences between what different blocs are hoping this process to come up with a new international treaty or instrument will achieve, how far it will go.

5. @mvankerkhove says increasing social mixing at a time when a highly transmissible variant (Delta) is circulating is driving up #Covid rates. She urged people to get vaccinated & to take precautions over Thanksgiving.

6. @WHO's Bruce Aylward says the relationship between COVAX — the vaccine distribution system — & #Covid vaccine manufacturers has been improving. "Slowly starting to go in the right direction," Aylward said. But there's still not enough transparency on production/distribution.

7. Aylward reiterated @WHO's position that unvaccinated people around the globe should have priority access to #Covid vaccine doses now, ahead of using doses for boosters. But for a number of wealthy countries, the boosters ship has sailed.

8. Asked about next wk's special WHA session, @DrMikeRyan said @WHO's member states drive the process & will decide. But he said the global pandemic response has failed. "We need a... promise to the future that this won't happen again," he said. "It cannot be business as usual."