UN pushes for virus vaccine as Trump disinfectant theory sparks outrage
The United Nations on Friday launched a global push to speed up production of a vaccine for the new coronavirus as US President Donald Trump came under fire for suggesting injecting patients with disinfectant.
The pandemic has upended life around the planet as nations try to stop the spread of the disease that has so far claimed more than 190,000 lives, infected nearly three million people and hammered the global economy.
Across the globe more than four billion people are still under some form of lockdown or stay-at-home order even as governments begin easing restrictions, weighing the risk of more infections against growing economic fallout.
Hundreds of millions of Muslims from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Africa had to start the holy month of Ramadan on lockdown with bans on prayers in mosques and on the large gatherings of families and friends to break the daily fast
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said defeating the pandemic will now require the biggest health effort ever seen as the United Nations joined forces with world leaders and the private sector to develop and distribute a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
“We face a global public enemy like no other,” Guterres told a virtual briefing. “A world free of COVID-19 requires the most massive public health effort in history.”
“None of us is safe until all of us are safe,” the UN chief said. “COVID-19 respects no borders. COVID-19 anywhere is a threat to people everywhere.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel joined the briefing. But absent were leaders from China, where the virus surfaced late last year, and from the United States, now the hardest hit nation with more than 50,000 dead and more than 870,000 confirmed cases.
COVID-19: A’Ibom to review lockdown order over 2 fresh cases
– ‘Irresponsible, dangerous’ –
While the disease appears to be peaking in Europe and the United States, other nations are still in the early stages of the fight and the WHO has warned strict measures should remain until there is a viable treatment or vaccine.
The race is on around the world to develop one, with the University of Oxford launching a human trial, while Germany announced similar trials will start by next week.
But experimental coronavirus treatment remdesivir failed in its first randomised clinical trial, inadvertently released results show, dampening hopes for the closely watched drug.
At a White House briefing, scientists said they had found the virus was quickly destroyed by sunlight, raising the possibility the pandemic could ease as the northern hemisphere summer approaches.
It prompted Trump to suggest researchers investigate whether it would be possible to inject light and disinfectant into the body to cure the disease — comments that sparked outrage among experts and medical professionals.
“Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” Trump said. “It sounds interesting to me.”
