Geneva/Zurich Switzerland
Reuters
The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief said on Monday that we need to fundamentally rethink our relationship with the elderly after huge losses to COVID-19 in nursing homes across the world “robbed us of a generation of wisdom”.
In a speech about the human rights implications of the COVID-19 pandemic at the United Nations in Geneva, Dr Mike Ryan urged countries to see elderly care as a “rights issue”.
A staff member works at a mobile coronavirus disease test centre, at Burgess Park in London, Britain, on 13th September. PICTURE: Reuters/Simon Dawson
Fatality rates in care homes have been high, partly because the elderly are more vulnerable to the disease but also because the response has been lacking, leading to some centres being overwhelmed, with bodies left unattended in rooms even in some rich countries.
“We need to fundamentally rethink the relationship we have with older generations and the way in which we provide care for that generation,” said Ryan. “We need to see the needs of our older generation as a rights issue – the right to be cared for, the right to social contact,” he said.
Fatality rates in care homes have been high, accounting for up to 80 per cent of COVID deaths in some high-income countries, Ryan said, without naming them.
In the same speech, Ryan also called for better protection for prisoners, migrants and healthcare workers.
“Access to healthcare in COVID-19 has not been fair,” he said. “It has been influenced by gender, by wealth, by age, by social class, by legal status, by ethnicity and so many other things.”
Meanwhile, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed for countries to join the WHO’s COVAX vaccine facility by a Friday deadline to help ensure that immunisations are fairly and efficiently distributed, said on Monday.
So far, 92 lower-income nations are seeking assistance via the COVAX facility, part of the WHO’s ACT Accelerator to boost development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to combat the pandemic. Some 80 higher-income nations have expressed interest, but many must still confirm their intention to join by the end of this week.
“If people in low- and middle-income countries miss out on vaccines, the virus will continue to kill and the economic recovery globally will be delayed,” Tedros told a WHO regional event for Europe that was broadcast virtually.
– With JOHN MILLER
