Analysis: Senior WHO official weighs in on Covid, vaccines, and mistakes that were made

A WHO official weighs in on Covid, vaccines, and mistakes that were made "The biggest collective failing has been that we've underestimated this microbe," the WHO's Mike Ryan says of SARS-CoV-2. Helen Branswell STAT

The Covid-19 pandemic has entered its third year, with no end in sight, and the world is fed up to the gills. A new and even more highly transmissible variant, Omicron, has been scorching through holiday gatherings over the past couple of weeks. People who are thrice vaccinated are among the infected.

Hard to believe as it seems, the start of 2022 may be even more unsettling than the beginning of 2020.

As we have several times over the past few years, STAT turned to Mike Ryan, head of the health emergencies program at the World Health Organization, looking for some insight about where we’ve been and where we’re heading. He and his team first learned a new virus appeared to be circulating in Hubei province, China, in the waning days of 2019, and have worked flat out since then trying to help the world navigate the worst pandemic in a century. 

We asked Ryan if he expected the pandemic to last as long as it has, who should make the call on whether to update Covid vaccines, and what he thinks are the main mistakes the world has made.

“What’s shocked me most in this pandemic has been that absence or loss of trust,” he said of people’s unwillingness to follow the advice of public health leaders and the containment policies set out by governments.

A transcript of the conversation was edited for length and clarity. 

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