WHO: Equitable Access to Health Care Needed in Post-COVID World
Voice of America
GENEVA - The World Health Organization is launching a campaign to build a fairer, healthier post-pandemic world by tackling poverty and health inequities. In marking this year’s World Health Day, the WHO is issuing a call for action to improve the health of all people.
The COVID-19 pandemic reveals in stark detail the disparities that exists between those who have access to the health care and vaccines that are likely to save their lives and those who do not and are more likely to die from this disease. Latest World Health Organization figures show close to 132 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including more than 2.8 million deaths globally. The U.N. agency says so far, more than 604 million vaccine doses have been administered, most in about a dozen of the world’s wealthiest countries. While everyone is affected by the pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the poorest and most marginalized are hardest hit in terms of lives and livelihoods lost. He says vital changes must be made in the year ahead to achieve greater equity between the haves and have-nots.FILE - A line of Holstein dairy cows feed through a fence at a dairy farm in Idaho on March 11, 2009. Since March 2024, a strain of avian influenza has been found in dairy cow herds in eight U.S. states. FILE - Researchers collect samples of wildlife, where the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected, at Chilean Antarctic Territory, Antarctica, in this handout photo obtained March 13, 2024. (Instituto Antartico Chileno/Handout via Reuters)
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, center, prepares for a sentencing hearing in state district court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 15, 2024. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool) FILE - A musician plays a violin behind a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Oct. 23, 2021.
Performers take part in the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Actress Mary Mina, playing a priestess, hands an olive branch to the first torch bearer, Greek olympic gold medalist Stefanos Douskos, during the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Actress Mary Mina, playing a priestess, lights the flame during the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024. Performers take part in the final dress rehearsal of the flame lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics, at the Ancient Olympia site, Greece, April 15, 2024.