WHO adviser says G7 must prioritize COVID-19

OTTAWA G7 leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, must make ending the COVID-19 pandemic a critical part of their summit in Germany, said a senior adviser to the director general at the World Health Organization.

Dr. Bruce Aylward said failing to keep COVID-19 at the top of the agenda risks further economic harm and unleashing more civil unrest.

Aylward is a Canadian infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist who has worked for WHO since 1992. In an interview, he said if getting control of the pandemic by investing in vaccines and treatments for all countries isn't important to the G7, it won't be important to anyone.

“The first thing the G7 has to say is, `We have an opportunity to beat this pandemic, we need to turn the burners on now,' ” Aylward said.

That includes funding investments in vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 and, when the updated vaccines are released later this year, not repeating the 2021 cycle in which rich countries snapped up all the initial doses.

The leaders of the world's leading economies are in the midst of their annual summit where the Russian invasion in Ukraine and food insecurity are the top issues.

But Aylward said the pandemic is forgotten at the peril of all nations. Economic growth is being hindered by supply chain issues linked not just to the Russian war in Ukraine, but also to ongoing COVID-19 impacts.

And the civil unrest unleashed in wealthy countries — including the ANTI-COVID-19 restriction convoys that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and multiple border crossings earlier this year — will only get worse if the economy and inflation aren't stabilized, he said.

The World Health Organization was aiming for 70 per cent of the world's population to be vaccinated by now, but more than 130 countries and territories are below that goal, and in Africa, fewer than one in five people have been fully vaccinated and fewer than one in 100 have had a booster dose.

Aylward said initially less wealthy countries couldn't get the needed doses, but that's not the issue anymore. Now it's overcoming vaccine hesitancy, a problem he said has been worsened by the actions of people in wealthy nations.

“So they've made it incredibly hard for political leaders in low-income countries to get coverage up,” he said. “It's a grind.”