The European Parliament’s Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Thursday held a virtual debate with the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the global response to COVID-19.
Ghebreyesus said the pandemic has highlighted the importance of global solidarity and that health should not be seen as a cost but an investment.
While he said the situation in the EU has improved significantly, the WHO chief underlined that COVID-19 is very much still circulating globally, with more than four million new cases in the last month.
Many MEPs said during the debate that the global community must cooperate including in developing, manufacturing and distributing vaccines against COVID-19.
They underlined the importance of the WHO but also said it has made mistakes in its response to the pandemic.
The Director-General informed the Committee that an independent panel will evaluate the WHO response to the pandemic to learn from any mistakes made. It will start its work soon.