10/12/2020 2:02 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 10/12/2020 2:24 PM
An unexpected crack opened in the last hours within the World Health Organization (WHO).
While its director, the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that given the increase in cases of coronavirus in Europe and America
"there will be no other option"
than confinement, one of his advisers said that the body "is not in favor of quarantines as main method against the virus.
"We understand the frustration of many countries as they see the cases rise again," said Tedros at a press conference, who indicated that "at a certain point
there is nothing to do
but give orders to stay home to save time and use it. to develop plans, prepare health workers and improve tests. "
The Ethiopian expert added that in the current situation it is still not an option to let more people get infected to try to achieve group immunity, because, he warned, "
letting the virus circulate will lead to unnecessary infections, suffering and deaths.
"
"In most countries less than 10% have been infected," recalled the head of the WHO, which, together with the lack of vaccine, prevents the use of a strategy as risky as that of seeking group immunity.
David Nabarro, one of the heads of the WHO in Europe.
For his part,
David Nabarro
, who is in charge of the WHO for the coronavirus in Europe, invited governments not to use quarantine as the main strategy to control the spread of Covid-19, since "they only have one consequence that should never be underestimated and it's
making poor people much poorer
.
"
"At the World Health Organization
we do not advocate quarantines
as the main means of controlling this virus," Nabarro said in an interview with the British media
The Spectator
.
He added: "The only time we think a quarantine is justified is to buy time to reorganize, regroup and rebalance its resources; protect health workers who are exhausted. But overall, we prefer not to."
Nabarro gave as an example of the consequences of confinements to countries that depend on tourism.
"Just look at what happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or in the Pacific because people are not on vacation," he warned.
Look at what has happened to small farmers around the world.
Look what is happening with the poverty levels.
It looks like we could well double world poverty by next year.
We could well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition,
"he remarked.
Previously, Director Ghebreyesus
had warned countries against lifting quarantines
too early during the first wave of the virus.
"The last thing any country needs is to open schools and businesses, only to be forced to close them again due to a resurgence," he said at the time.
Children and young people ask for help in El Salvador.
Photo Xinhua.
The head of the UN body had urged countries to strengthen other measures, including widespread testing and contact tracing, so that they could reopen safely and avoid future blockades.
"We need to get to a sustainable situation where we have adequate control of this virus without closing our lives completely, or moving from one blockade to another, which has a hugely damaging impact on societies," he said.
The WHO had already entered into contradictions on other occasions.
From
"there may never be"
a solution to the coronavirus to
"there is hope,"
all at the same time that vaccines were being developed in different countries.
Also, the highest health body in the world had given different messages about the use of chinstraps, Hydroxychloroquine, the way in which asymptomatic patients spread and the possibility of transmitting the virus through the air.
With information from agencies.
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