The end of the pandemic that caused 20 million deaths

Global public health crossed the threshold today with a historic decision World Health Organization (WHO) that the time has come to stop considering it covid-19 pandemic as an international public health emergency. Here are some keys, questions and answers about the pandemic.

This decision, made 1,221 days after the declaration of the state of emergency, on January 31, 2020, also recognizes that SARS-CoV-2 virus in its various variants will remain with us as a endemic diseasewhich will continue to cause infections and in some cases death.

The first time the coronavirus that causes covid-19 was identified, clues pointed to a Wuhan Animal Market (China).

It was suspected that the people who worked in that enclosure had close contact with the animal that would serve as “viral reservoir” (At first it was about armadillos, and more recently about raccoon dogs) enabled the transition from pathogens to humans.

As the months passed suspicions arose that China was hiding information about the origin of the virus and it was suggested that another hypothesis for research is the possible leakage of the virus from a laboratory located in that same city.

China has rejected the accusations. non-transparency and through official channels began to expose the idea that the virus originated outside the country and was brought there by foreigners, from where it spread.

The WHO faced credibility problems because he opted for a path of cooperation rather than confrontation with China, but in recent months the WHO director-general and his colleagues have taken a more critical tone towards China, after learning evidence that it is not sharing all the data that is wrong with it.

After the emergence of a new virus, which was first reported by China at the end of 2019 Committee on Urgent Matters for Covid-19a team of 17 recognized experts in different branches of science from different countries whose mission was to assess the development of covid-19 and recommend measures to the Director General of the WHO.

That committee met for the first time on January 22, 2022, and eight days later, following its advice, the WHO declared international public health situation.

After that decision, the commission met every three months to review the situation and kept the same recommendation until today, when thought it was time to move into a “transitional phase”as explained by its president, French medical professor Didier Houssin.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus caused approx 765 million infections in the world and although official deaths reported by countries are 6.9 millionWHO believes that deaths directly or indirectly caused by this disease reach 20 million.

Based on official WHO figures, which reflect only deaths attributed to covid-19 or its complications, America was the continent with the highest mortalitywith a total of 2.95 million deaths.