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World Health Organization Against Covid-19 “Immunity Passports”
As global deaths surpass 202,000, The World Health Agency WHO is now cautioning against issuing “immunity passports”
Its bad enough that the coronavirus has killed 202,985 people worldwide, now catching Covid-19 doesn’t guarantee immunity. Catching Covid-19 once may not protect you from getting it again, the World Health Organization WHO has warned.
The WHO now says there is no evidence that people who test positive for Covid-19 are protected against reinfection.
Furthermore saying the issuance of “immune passports” may promote the continued spread of the pandemic. The alert from WHO came as the global coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 on Sunday.
Some governments have put forward the idea of issuing documents attesting to peoples immunity. Based on Serology tests revealing the presence of antibodies in their blood.
Earlier today we tweeted about a new WHO scientific brief on “immunity passports”. The thread caused some concern & we would like to clarify:
We expect that most people who are infected with #COVID19 will develop an antibody response that will provide some level of protection. pic.twitter.com/AmxvQQLTjM
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 25, 2020
However the WHO warns that despite antibodies in the blood immunity still hasn’t been established. Furthermore the available scientific data do not justify the granting of an “immunity passport.”
The WHO also believes that the serology tests currently used “need additional validation. Above all to determine their accuracy and reliability”.
The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission, the WHO reports.
World Health Organization’s credibility damaged
Meanwhile, The World Health Organization’s credibility has taken a severe beating of late. The WHO is the only institution that can provide global health leadership. But, at a time when such leadership is urgently needed, the body has failed miserably.
Before belatedly declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, the WHO provided conflicting and confusing guidance. More damaging, it helped China, where the crisis originated, to cover its tracks.
It is now widely recognized that China’s political culture of secrecy helped to turn a local viral outbreak into the greatest global disaster of our time. Far from sounding the alarm when the new coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, the Communist Party of China (CPC) concealed the outbreak, allowing it to spread far and wide.