Mike Ryan, WHO: Gone are the days when countries could prepare for very specific threats

3 months ago
35

"Gone are the days when countries could prepare for very specific threats, because many countries are facing multiple threats at any one given time...with a (mpox)vaccine that costs $141 a dose, we want to vaccinate 5 million people in Congo, that's going to cost you a billion Dollars. If I had a billion Dollars tomorrow would I be spending it on mpox vaccine? Maybe I'd spend it on making sure my measles coverage is better...countries face real trade-offs. Real difficulty...Mpox has become an issue because it's seen as an international health threat, not because it's necessarily killing kids in a certain place...The world only wakes up when the threat is beyond the national border and countries are left to deal with their national problems...without any support most of the time...."

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