The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 25 September 2020
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50:57
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MP4
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438.6 MB
UN General Assembly
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), reminded that the General Assembly was continuing in New York. On 24 September, in his remarks to the High-level Roundtable on Climate Ambition, the UN Secretary-General had stressed three urgent priorities: securing a sustainable COVID-19 recovery which promoted climate action; protecting economies and societies in line with what science told us; and prioritizing the most vulnerable people and communities. The Secretary-General’s remarks can be read here. On 12 December, an important climate event would be jointly organized by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Accord, and ahead of the COP26, which had to be postponed to November 2021.
45th Human Rights Council
Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), said that today at 10 a.m. the Council had heard from its Advisory Committee on several topics. Soon the Council would hear from High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet on the human rights situation in Venezuela; her statement would be shared with the media after the delivery. A general debate on the country’s situation would then commence, with 60 countries and 100 NGOs scheduled to speak. A discussion on the human rights of indigenous populations would also take place later today. It was also a deadline for draft resolutions that would be considered during the final days of the session; currently some 38 draft resolutions were expected. On 28 September, the Universal Periodic Review of 12 countries would commence.
More information on the HRC schedule can be found here.
COVID-19 and seasonal influenza
Dr. Ann Moen, Chief of Influenza Preparedness and Response at the World Health Organization (WHO), said the WHO was helping Member States with preventing and treating respiratory illnesses, including influenza and COVID-19. The influenza season might place an additional burden on already stretched health systems. On average, between 290,000 and 600,000 people died of seasonal respiratory influenza. The measures recommended by the WHO were all very important for avoiding both flu and COVID-19. There were a lot of ways to prevent flu and care for flu patients. The five priority vulnerable groups for vaccination, according to a 2012 WHO guidance, were: pregnant women, individuals with underlying health conditions, elderly people, health workers, and children. This year, however, under the current circumstances, experts had identified health workers and older people as the top risk groups. WHO also encouraged people to listen to the advice of their local and national authorities about the prioritization of vaccines.
Almost all the influenza vaccines being used now had been ordered before the COVID-19 pandemic, because supplies were normally ordered long in advance. WHO was working with its regional offices and industry partners to provide additional vaccine quantities where needed. The mentioned prioritization should be taken into consideration if there were short supplies.
Dr. Moen stated, responding to a question, that the safety profile is well known and if there are side effects they are generally mild. There were no studies that a flu vaccine would be effective against COVID-19; the target groups for flu and COVID-19 vaccinations could overlap. Dr. Moen stressed that influenza vaccine procurement was a lengthy process that could last up to 12 months; for example, countries in the Southern hemisphere were now placing their orders for May 2021. October was the right time to be vaccinated against influenza in the Northern hemisphere; the WHO was recommending that people get vaccinated as soon as the vaccines were available, said Dr. Moen. Different countries had different plans, some prioritizing certain groups at risk, others vaccinating entire populations.
Geneva announcements
Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), informed that Cartier, one of the world’s leading luxury brands, had joined the Lion’s Share Fund, a ground-breaking initiative to tackle the crisis in nature, biodiversity and climate. Led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a coalition of businesses and UN partners, the Lion’s Share was an innovative financial mechanism to raise over USD 100 million per year within the next five years to halt biodiversity loss and protect habitats by asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal was featured in their advertisements. Some 20 per cent of ads globally featured an animal, said Ms. Bel. UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner and Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier, would brief the media today, via Webex, at 6 p.m. Geneva time.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that on Monday, 28 September at 4 p.m., there would be a hybrid press conference on the publication of the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 - Tackling Illicit Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa. Speakers would include Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General, and Paul Akiwumi, Director of the Division on Africa, LDCs and Special Programmes. The report would be embargoed until 28 September 2020 at 7 p.m. Geneva time.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would open its virtual 68th session on 28 September, at 4 p.m. The only other public meeting planned for this session would be the closure meeting, on 16 October, at 4 p.m.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances would not close today (as initially planned) its 19th session but only suspend it, to allow the dialogue with Iraq (which had been postponed) to take place on 5 October (12:30 to 2:30 p.m.) and on 7 October (4 to 6 p.m).
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (85th session, 14 September – 1 October) would hold its next public meeting for the closure of the session, on 1 October at 5 p.m.
Mr. LeBlanc informed about the inauguration of Tempus, the temporary conference facilities, at UN Geneva on 29 September at 12:30 p.m., in the presence of the UN Geneva Director-General Tatiana Valovaya and Switzerland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Jürg Lauber.
Mr. LeBlanc also reminded that 26 September would be International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons; 27 September - World Tourism Day; and 28 September- International Day for Universal Access to Information.
Teleprompter
All right, good morning, Good morning everyone.
Bonjour Atus E atus Yuvan tres Yuvan Reddy.
Just to start with, as you know, the General Assembly in New York continues with a number of **** level events having taking place over the week and continues today.
Yesterday, there was a **** level round table on climate ambition hosted by our Secretary General, in which he recalled that the damage to people and to the environment due to climate disruption was immense and growing and we must urgently reverse course.
He said he asked all leaders to act on three urgent priorities to implement sustainable COVID-19 recovery plans that tackle climate change.
Second, to protect our economies by acting in line with what sign tells us.
And 3rd, to prioritise the most vulnerable people and communities.
He again stressed that we must not bail out polluting industries, especially coal, and that governments should accelerate the decarbonization of the global economy.
Any plans that support that supports economically costly and polluting coal and fossil fuel industries cannot be called recovery.
And we would have distributed the his full remarks to you yesterday afternoon.
I hope you've received them on the sign light of that.
You may have seen an announcement by during that, that that event of an important climate summit to be held jointly by the UN and the United Kingdom.
And it's a climate event that is kind of replacing or to mark the 5th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement is going to be held on the 12th of December.
That was announced just yesterday.
It's it's kind of replacing the the COP 26 which was supposed to, or acting as a replacement if you wish for this COP 26, which was going to take place this year but has been postponed to November of next year.
So full details are online.
The December event will be held amid signs that the world is off track to limit global temperature rises to 1.5° above pre industrial levels and that a carbon free economy is long overdue.
Mr Gutierrez recalled that the climate emergency is fully upon us and we have no time to waste.
The answer to our existential crisis is swift, decisive, scaled up action and solidarity among solidarity among nations.
So as soon as we have additional information to share with you on that event, we will do so.
And you may be wondering about the the talks happening in Switzerland on the exchange of prisoners from Yemen.
What I can tell you is that the talks are ongoing.
I, that's all I have to share with you at the moment.
And if we have additional information, we will certainly share it with you as soon as we can.
So let's now turn to our agenda.
Rolando Gomez from the Human Rights Council is with us to give you an update on what's happening at the Council today.
Thank you, Rail and welcome to everybody.
I'll be brief to walk you through the Human Rights Council session for today at 10:00.
The Council heard from the Advisor Committee that it's 18 member independent body which serves as a think tank for the Council, who presented a variety of reports, one on national policies and human rights, one on efforts to draught a legally binding instrument on the right to development and also on sustainable development in general and sustainable development goals.
So they presented all these reports this morning at 10 and in a short while roughly 10:45 for the Council will hear from the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who will present an oral update on the human rights situation in Venezuela.
This is the second update that the **** Commissioner will be presenting to the Council this session.
So this is going to happen in about 10 minutes or so.
And we will be sharing that statement with you after delivery.
So bear with us.
It's, it's not a terribly long statement, but we'll make sure to get that to you shortly after delivery.
Thereafter, at approximately 11:00 or so, the Council will begin its general debate on country situations.
It's, this is Item 4 on the agenda.
We have a very long list of speakers, roughly 60 countries and over 100 NGOs have inscribed to speak.
So this will take us throughout today.
It'll spill over to the afternoon and perhaps continue next week.
I should point out that there are a number of joint statements from states.
We'll do our best to to make sure those are posted online for you.
If, if not to do, give me a call.
There'll be the usual break at 1:00 to 3:00, and then they'll be the continue at 3:00 PM.
We'll have the continuation of the interactive discussion which began yesterday with a special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, and then we will resume with the general debate on country situations around 4:00 PM this afternoon.
At the very end of the day, there's a private meeting on the complaint procedure.
This is one of the subsidiary bodies of the Human Rights Council, which works in confidentially meeting who actually listened to and and receiving complaints from individuals and groups of individuals on gross human rights violations.
So that's a private meeting.
And just wanted to note that today is a deadline for draught resolutions, which will be considered by the Human Rights Council at the current session on 6 and 7 October.
So I will send you an update on all the draughts that will be submitted today.
Later today, I'll send you that update.
We expect roughly 38.
For the moment, we have 38 draught resolutions, which is a very **** number for the September session.
So we will share that with you.
I did send you the link last night where you could find those resolutions, but Ioffer your ease of reference, we'll send you the overall list.
Very briefly turning to Monday, we have the day is dedicated largely to the adoption of reports by the Council's Universal Periodic Review.
We have 10 reports to be adopted on Monday.
I'll send you the details later today.
And then towards the end of the day on Monday, the Council will hold its annual discussion on the integration of genders perspective into its work.
I'll leave it there.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Rolando, are there any questions in the room for Orlando?
Don't see any hands, but Gabriela Sotomayor is online and has a question for you.
Good morning, Gabriela.
Thank you.
Good morning, Real good morning, Rolando.
One quick question and then another quick question is, is the government of Venezuela going to take the floor answering to Bachelet or a report as a concerned state?
That's one quick question and then another one.
If I mean the Commission of inquiry says said that they have enough reasons to think that a **** authorities in Venezuela committed crimes against humanity, That's what the Commission said.
So my question is if in the rules of the Human Rights Council exists something like if there is a suspect that the country is violating human rights like that, if it if it could be suspended of the of the membership until they investigate.
And you know, but my, my question basically is that I mean, how how a country like that is in this situation could be member of the Human Rights Council.
OK, thanks for your question.
Let me let me take perhaps the easier one first.
Indeed, Venezuela will speak as a country concerned.
They will in fact speak twice during the ensuing general debate after the **** Commissioners oral update on Venezuela that kicks off a general debate on all country situations.
And just to be clear, not exclusively on Venezuela, but Venezuela will have the opportunity to speak.
And I see from the list I have before me, which I can share with you, they're speaking in fact, twice.
They're, they're speaking, they're third in line to speak on behalf of a group of countries.
So that will be on and they should indicate which group, which countries are aligned with that statement.
And then they will be speaking later on down the line, maybe about 1/2 hour later on in the national capacity.
So certainly you'll, you'll hear their sentiments.
They already reacted as you pointed out quite, quite strongly to the the report of the fact finding mission in Venezuela, which as you point out did did point to crimes against humanity as possibly having been committed in terms of losing a membership.
Or there is a rule within the Human Rights Council which stays consistent.
Non cooperation with the council could lead to its suspension of a member, but it's not up to the council itself to do that.
It's up to the General Assembly, the parent body.
So that recommendation would have to be put to the General Assembly for its ultimate decision.
That has not happened in the Council.
So it's something that, again, just to be very clear, it's a General Assembly that would have to take that decision on on the council's membership or rather on Venezuela's membership or any country for that matter.
Very good.
And I see we have Lisa Shrine also online with a question if we can unmute her microphone.
Good morning, Lisa.
Good morning real and good morning Rolando.
Can you hear me Rolando?
Good.
We could hear you later.
Regarding the UPR on Monday, is the United States one of the countries that's going to be under consideration there for adoption?
And what do you mean by adoption?
Will the countries involved be speaking or is it just a simple hand raise?
Adoption of what happened previously, I haven't followed the UPR, so I'm really out of the loop on this, but if you could clarify that, thank you.
Sure, Thanks, Lisa.
The latter, in fact, this is a formality, largely formality as a universal periodic of your working group is a subsidiary body to the, to the Human Rights Council.
The, it's, there's a requirement, a formal requirement that is that the Human Rights Council has to adopt these reports formally in, in a plenary meeting.
So that's what's happening.
We have 12 countries, I'll just recite them very briefly for Monday.
We have Kyrgyzstan, Guinea Lao, Lesotho, Kenya, Armenia, Guinea Bissau, Sweden, Grenada, Turkey, Kiribati and Guyana.
So as you noted, United States is not one of those countries, but these are the 12 countries who already underwent their UPR and this is a formality to adopt.
It's not a reopening of the debate, but what is an important feature of this plenary meeting with on UPR is that NGOs have an opportunity to chime in and express their views on the US.
The USI should point out.
Thank you for the question.
In fact, because the US is scheduled to be reviewed by the Universal Perigy Working Group on 9N that I can't recall the exact dates, but 9N is their date.
There are 14 countries inscribed rather scheduled to be reviewed and the US is one of them and their date is 9N.
So in fact the reports for this upcoming UPR session are now online, including the United States report.
If you have trouble finding them, you can go to the council website, direct yourself to the UPR page and they're all the reports are there.
If you can't find them, let me know.
Thanks.
Lisa, you have a follow up?
Yes, I do.
Thanks for that.
Rolando, is that UPR session, is that going to be on the Zoom or on a web, web website?
I mean are we going to be able to follow it or is this done in private chambers?
How do you get the information?
Thanks.
As it stands now, the UPR session will be held the way the council session is being held right now, that is somewhat of a hybrid format.
Many of the states participating would would do so because usually for UPR you have **** level delegations.
So it's not just the ambassador here, usually it's ministers.
So presumably they will be participating from their capitals with minimal presence in the room vis A vis social distancing measures, of course.
So as it stands now, the modalities will be the same as what we're experiencing now.
Very good.
I think that's all the questions for you, Orlando.
Thank you very much and good luck with the day.
Let's now go to Sarah Bell from UN Development Programme, who has an announcement for you and she joins us online.
Good morning, Sarah.
Bonjour, real Bonjour.
Bonjour Atos Cartier, one of the world's leading luxury brands, is joining today the Lion's Share Fund, which is a ground breaking initiative to tackle the crisis in nature, biodiversity and climate.
Led by UNDP and a coalition of businesses and UN partners, The Lion's Share is an innovative financial mechanism that aims to raise over 100 million per year within the next 5 years to help biodiversity loss and protect habitats.
By asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal is featuring their advertisement.
And you might say 0.5% is not so much, but if you consider then 20% of all advertisement in the world contains an animal, that can be really huge.
Those funds are pulled and distributed to project globally, but have a significant impact on animal conservation, habitat loss and the climate crisis.
I've sent you, I think yesterday the invitation to the press conference with Akim Steiner and Serial Vigneron, who is the CEO of Cartier, and they will brief the media today at noon EST and 6:00 PM Geneva time.
It's a Webex conference.
If you can't find it anymore, I'll be happy to share it.
Again, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Sarah, are there any questions for UNDP?
I don't see any questions.
So Sarah, good luck with your media briefing and I'm sure many, many journalists will be joining that.
Thank you.
Let's continue with Catherine.
Catherine Riesu, the like you said to tell you about an upcoming report.
For most you need develop more economic on Ashley and the Economic Development in Africa report on Monday at 4:00 PM.
I mentioned some possible changes in the way we would do it.
We stay to the usual format so it will be the only one press conference and it will be exclusively for Geneva based accredited to the UN journalist.
The report and the press release are available online.
I remind you with the title Tackling listed financial flows for sustainable development in Africa, the Secretary General, Avantad and Mochisakitui and the Director of the Africa Division will be available for this press conference to present the this new research.
Thank you very much.
Merci beaucoup Catrin.
Any questions regard that screen?
I do not see any.
So Mayor Singapore Catrin, let's now go to WHO World Health Organisation.
Margaret Harris is here with a guest, Doctor Anne Moen, who is The Who Chief for influenza and prepare influenza preparedness and response to tell you more about influenza season and the flu.
Good morning and welcome.
OK, good morning everybody from Geneva.
So today I want to give an update on and some information about the upcoming influenza season.
WHO is helping Member States to manage prevention, control and treatment of respiratory illnesses holistically, including both influenza and COVID-19.
We're updating a range of guidance on on these areas for for Member States, policymakers, clinicians, etcetera.
The code circulation of influenza and SARS COV 2 may place additional burden on vulnerable populations in healthcare systems each year.
As a reminder, seasonal influenza affects individuals in every country and results up to 1 billion cases, 3 to 5 million severe cases and on average 290,000 to 650,000 deaths, respiratory related deaths annually.
There are safe and effective influenza vaccines as part of a broader prevention and control efforts, which include antivirals and also non pharmaceutical interventions.
So all of the protective measures that we've been messaging about COVID and about flu in the past, such as people taking physical distancing measures, hand hygiene, covering coughs and sneezes, wearing masks when appropriate, and staying home when sick and seeking care when needed are all very important for both flu and COVID.
So influenza vaccination is the best way to prevent disease and reduce disease severity and societal burden due to influenza.
So we're really lucky.
We do have a lot of ways to prevent and and treat and and care for patients with flu.
Since 2012, WHO has recommended influenza vaccination for five target groups.
Those five target groups are pregnant women, individuals with the underlying health conditions, older adults, health workers and children.
These groups remain very important targets for influenza vaccination.
This year, however, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation have endorsed a set of interim recommendations for influenza vaccination during COVID-19, based on a set of considerations, including alleviating additive burden on healthcare systems and vulnerable populations and managing potentially limited supplies of influenza vaccines.
SAGE has recommended and endorsed in the last week.
Among the five risk groups, health workers and older adults are the highest priority groups for influenza vaccination during COVID-19 pandemic.
People should still follow the advice of their local health officials or who should consider receiving the flu, on who should consider receiving the flu vaccine and people in the risk groups listed should pay particular attention.
It's important to note that these recommendations should be considered along with those 2012 WHO recommendations and the and The Who SAGE position paper from 2012.
Also, along with national policies, local epidemiology and potential for increased demand on influenza vaccines, WHO encourages Member States to take into account the risk of increased exposure of COVID-19 when conducting their routine influenza vaccinations.
WHO has released guidance on maintaining essential health services, which includes modifications for safe delivery of immunisation services.
And lastly, WHO encourages, as I mentioned, individuals to follow with the advice of their local health officials on who should consider receiving the flu vaccine.
And people in risk groups listed above should pay particular attention.
So that I'm happy to take questions and thank you.
Thank you very much.
Doctor Moen, are there any questions?
Yes, Emma, Emma, far from Reuters.
Yes, thank you for that.
Doctor Moen, are you essentially saying that there's a risk of shortages of supplies then this year for flu vaccines?
Can you elaborate a little bit on that?
And so only a portion of the vulnerable group should get them.
Thank you.
So the way influenza vaccination programmes work is that you actually order your vaccine nine months to 12 months in advance for the upcoming season in your system.
So almost all of the vaccines that's being used now was ordered prior to the COVID pandemic.
So programmes were planning their normal use.
And many countries already have policies on influenza vaccination, and they generally follow the five target groups or a subset of the target groups.
So depending on the country, they've already ordered their supplies.
We started hearing around probably the April time frame that some countries were worried that there might be an increased demand due to COVID.
So we're working with our regional offices and we're also working with our partners in industry.
We've helped some countries get additional vaccines.
Our regional offices are keeping close tabs on some countries have more vaccine than they might need, some are finding less.
So we wanted to issue recommendations based on requests from member States and regional offices and based on the advice of the SAGE committee on how you might consider prioritisation.
If you have a short supply, you want to follow up on that.
Yeah, if I may.
Thank you.
Can you clarify a little bit which region might be looking at having fewer than they'd like?
Are we talking about Northern Hemisphere?
Yes, we're talking about Northern Hemisphere because this this is upcoming Northern Hemisphere vaccination season right now.
So that's where we're vaccinating and we've heard from several regions and it's different countries.
Very good.
I see.
We have a couple of questions online as well.
We have Ahmed, I assume this is Ahmed Ahun.
Can we unmute Ahmed please?
Good morning, Ahmed.
I have two questions for the doctor.
Yes.
Is The Who examined any hurting side effects for the vaccine of influenza the last years?
My second question, what is the positive effect or the positive protection can the vaccine of influenza offer regarding the COVID-19?
Thank you.
OK, thank you very much for that question.
So with regard to side effects of the influenza vaccine, vaccines have been around for over 50 years and they're well regarded as a very safe and generally effective vaccine.
So there are no major side effects of influenza vaccination.
And I think that's well studied and the safety profiles are very, very solid.
So, so they would have normal side effects, maybe a sore arm or something very similar, but it's there's not known adverse effects of influenza vaccination.
With regard to whether or not an influenza vaccine protects from COVID, I would say no, we wouldn't.
You would not expect that a flu vaccine would protect from COVID.
What we're hoping is that the flu vaccine will protect you from the flu and keep you out of the hospital and adding additional burden to the healthcare system.
So really there's been no studies, Covid's completely new and and there's no evidence to show that that would be effective against a different virus.
Very good.
Let's go to Lisa Schlein from Voice of America.
Lisa, go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
Good morning.
Doctor Moon, couple of questions.
I was wondering whether the reason for the the the kind of the importance perhaps of, of having the flu vaccine this year more than any other year is because the circulation of COVID makes people more vulnerable, possibly more vulnerable or susceptible to actually coming down with corona, being infected with coronavirus.
Or whether by inoculating people against the influenza, it would sort of take away a kind of confusion that might exist between the influenza and COVID-19.
That is, maybe people who have the flu might be thought to have COVID-19 and this would cause a problem.
And then if you have your notes, would you be able to send them to us?
That would be very helpful indeed.
Thank you.
OK, thank you very much for those questions.
So the first one, the reason to vaccinate these patients at the five target groups traditionally recommended through the 2012, they're all at **** risk or higher risk for flu.
That's been documented by solid evidence.
So the reason we're recommending health workers and elderly is, is basically because some of the same people that are at **** risk for flu are also at **** risk for COVID.
And so it just happens that the, the target groups for vaccination might overlap.
I think you're right.
It, it can help.
We, we all know that this is going to be challenging upcoming season if when influenza starts circulating and if there's Co circulating circulation between flu and COVID, it could cause confusion in healthcare settings or additional challenges.
And so the more flu that we can prevent with the with the tools and the vaccines and the antivirals that we have and and the ongoing health measures, I think that we can help alleviate some of those challenges in the health system setting.
I can also protect people that are at risk from flu from actually getting sick.
So thank you.
And we have another question from Peter Kenny, if we can unmute.
Good morning, Peter, please go ahead.
Good morning.
Doctor Aman, I would just like to ask you to clarify, but you said that earlier in April, you had the expectation that there would be a greater demand for the influenza vaccine.
Do you have data showing that there has in fact been a big increase in the demand for the influenza vaccine?
And are you linking that to the effect that we have COVID-19 around?
Thank you.
So thanks for that question.
Yes, we started getting calls from some of our regional offices in, in around the April time frame, just saying that they were hearing from some of their countries that they were thinking that there might be an increased demand for flu vaccine in the time of COVID.
For all of the reasons that we've laid out that they want to decrease the challenges in the healthcare setting and they want to protect those vulnerable to both COVID and flu to try and decrease the burden on health systems.
And so I'm, I'm sorry if I missed part of that question.
I think was there.
I'm sorry, can you if did I miss part of your question?
What I was saying is, has there in fact been a big increase in the demand for the influenza vaccine because you're you're speaking about what the expectation was, but I'm actually asking what is the situation now?
Thank you.
Yes, sorry, sorry about that.
Yes, they're actually, we are finding that there's in in certain countries and we've heard from specific countries saying that they were trying to get additional vaccine and they were trying to source it and some countries are having trouble sourcing additional vaccines.
So some of it's anecdotal just by hearing from various countries, but we've also got a couple regions that are keeping tabs on where they feel like there might be some shortages in the region and where there might be some surplus to manage that.
But yes, there has in fact been an increased demand and we're hearing now that countries that are trying to get influenza vaccine cannot get it.
And I think this goes back to one of my earlier points, influenza vaccination and vaccines are, are the, the vaccine procurement is a really rather long process.
As I said, the vaccines that you'll need to use for next season are ordered 9 to 12 months ahead of time.
In fact, today, this afternoon, we'll be releasing the vaccine strain recommendations for the Southern Hemisphere vaccines 2021.
Those vaccinations will start taking place in May, May of of next year for the Southern Hemisphere season.
And so really it's right now September and and even before countries have already put orders in for their next Southern hemisphere season next May.
So the reason that it's hard to get more vaccine at the last minute is because it's a long process produced in eggs and it takes a while to get all of that produced and packaged annually.
We know that around 500 million doses of vaccine are, are produced and I think that they're produced on demand based on those pre-orders.
And there's some margins.
We have heard that from from our industry associations, they have been able to increase some of the orders for some of the countries and and they've made additional vaccine that they've been handing out.
But overall, it does seem to be there's a higher demand than there is numbers of vaccines.
Robin Millard from AFP, you have the floor.
Yes.
Good morning.
Are you expecting that fewer people will catch the flu this year because of the measures that are in place to tackle COVID?
People staying at home, social distancing, wearing masks, washing their hands, etcetera.
That's a great question.
I think that everybody's maybe seen some in the news about the, the really record low circulation of influenza in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand, South America and South Africa.
And, and we think really that this is in part due to all of those social measures and physical distancing, travel restrictions and some of those measures that have been put in place over the past since since the beginning of the pandemic.
And so there's some other hypothesis also that might be contributing to the rather low circulation of influenza.
But if this follows suit and influenza also is low circulation in the Northern hemisphere, we may see, we may see less infections and we, we also hope to see less infections due to the, the very **** uptake of influenza vaccine.
We, we also, but we are seeing some sporadic outbreaks in some areas of the world.
And so we, we really fully believe that as society open back up, we'll probably start to see flu circulate again back to more normal proportions.
But as everything with flu, it remains to be seen.
Can I see Robin may have a follow up.
So can we give the floor again to Robin?
Yeah.
Just to know on on the southern hemisphere, is there a, a figure that you can put on that to give us a sort of sense of the scale of of that drop?
So I think that we can send you some, maybe some publications.
Basically everywhere we've looked and there's been a number of countries represented that have tested, they're testing for flu at normal or even higher numbers than they usually test to track and make sure they're finding all the flu out there.
And they really just is not a lot of flu.
So typically in the Southern hemisphere, you could probably during the season see you know somewhere between 10 to 30% of the specimens tested for influenza positive for influenza.
But this year just about routinely everywhere where there was a routine level or even higher amount of testing, we've seen figures less than 1% of of, of specimens positive for flu.
So this really is his historic lows in terms of flu circulation.
And we feel confident that this is not due to lack of testing or lack of surveillance.
It's it's truly there's not a lot of flu out there in the South.
There was not a lot of flu out there in the Southern Hemisphere.
OK, we're going to take a question from Jeremy Launch Radio France.
Jeremy, hi, yes, thank you for taking my questions.
Just I'm, I'm, I'm trying here.
Can we have a a few names of countries that might lack vaccines?
I know that was working by region, but can you no, can you hear me?
No, no, because I don't have, I don't have the up to So I don't want to give the name of a country that we talked to in April, in September.
OK, So follow up use have more than needed.
So do you specifically ask those countries that have more vaccines than needed to help others even in in Europe?
I mean, that's a great question.
Are you offering vaccine?
I think we can follow up with that.
If there were countries that had additional vaccine that were willing to share them with those that that were seeking to procure more vaccine, we could take that offline.
I don't think we can handle that here.
But it would be great if, if, if that's the case, to please get in touch with us.
It would be a good show of solidarity.
Yeah.
Let's go to Gabriela Sotomayor.
Thank you.
Thank you, Doctor Mon.
I asked here in Switzerland, for example, for the for the vaccine and they said that they will have it at the beginning of October or something like that.
But my question is a very basic 1.
Meanwhile, I mean, if we don't have the vaccine yet, influenza for a general public, what, what do you have to feel?
I mean, just to know that you have influenza or you have COVID what what is at what moment you know that you have to that is not COVID or, or whatever.
I mean, is there something that you can advise to the public?
Thank you.
So thank you.
That's a great question.
First of all, it's, it's not unusual.
I mean, October is the right time to be vaccinating for the Northern hemisphere.
So that's perfectly normal that vaccine campaigns for influenza are starting in October and, and it's actually that's just around the corner.
And, and, and so as soon as it's available in October, then seek your vaccine.
I think that's a really great in terms of advising the general public on how they know if they have influenza or COVID first.
The only real way to know if you have insulin or Covic is through laboratory confirmation.
You can't, you can't.
There's, there's a few telltale signs that where they're very different.
For instance, you've seen probably the lack of smell or or loss of taste for COVID.
So that might be a very strong sign that you have COVID.
But the way that we're going to, the way that we recommend really for patients, it's not to self diagnose between flu and COVID, but to pay attention to your signs and symptoms.
So if you have a mild illness or you just need to sleep and there's a few signs and symptoms and we're putting out some some guidance like this for the general public to understand.
If you have a mild disease then then probably you shouldn't worry and follow your local health care advice about whether or not to seek testing.
I would say if you have mild disease, you don't need to seek testing for flu, but but according to how your local area is you, you might want to get tested for Covic.
If you're severe, you need to go to A to a emergency department, outpatient emergency department or, or to a hospital.
And, and so it's really paying attention to your signs and symptoms, not trying to guess if you have COVID or you have flu, but knowing when you should seek health health advice or when you should go to the doctor is, is really what we're promoting.
Very good.
One last question, Emma, thank you for taking a third question for me.
I just want to be doubly sure I understand because it's a really important topic.
So given some of these shortages in some places where they are occurring or more generally, are you therefore recommending that people outside of those categories, the two within the five that you identified, are you recommending that people outside of those categories desist from having the flu shot this year?
Thank you.
So I think that because of the way the campaigns were way work and because of the way the the vaccine is.
You know, purchased in advance countries generally have a vaccination plan.
Some countries only recommend vaccination for health workers and elderly, some recommended for all of the SAGE target groups.
And some countries, few countries even have universal vaccination.
They say if you're if you're over six months old and you want to be vaccinate, we urge vaccinations.
So countries have already planned to meet the target groups that they generally promote vaccination in.
So we're thinking that those that routinely have vaccine programmes will probably be OK.
There may be some increased number of, you know, young healthy adults that don't normally get vaccination that are seeking it.
And then it would be up to the country, the local area, to see if they need to really start prioritising to make sure that they have enough vaccine for those highest risk.
So that it's really a guideline.
I mean, we can give you an example.
Suppose you're a country that never orders vaccine, but somehow you have 20,000 doses this year.
What should you do with it?
That's why we made the prioritisation, so they can decide based on their populations and their numbers.
Maybe they should Target Healthcare workers first to preserve the health system and etcetera.
So it's really back to what the local countries have planned for and they usually plan for those target groups and and sometimes beyond.
So the these recommendations are just to help those countries where they're starting to see that they might need to prioritise and preserve vaccine.
Is that it?
We have one last question.
If you, if we, if we can Dina, Dina Sam, the if we can open her mic, can we unmute Dina Sam, please?
Hello.
Hi.
Yes.
Hello.
Can you hear me please?
Go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
I would like to ask about the Middle East, if you have any latest numbers and the situation in general regarding flu and vaccines in this region.
Thank you.
So I don't have any specific numbers on the Middle East per SE, but one thing that I can say is that the the MRO regional office has really focused over the past decade on improving their influenza preparedness and response.
We've seen the number of countries testing for flu go from just a few up to almost all the countries in the Middle East able to test for influenza and, and follow.
We've, we know that every country in the Middle East region, even though in, in **** risk settings or, or crisis settings, they all have trained rapid response teams to be able to investigate and, and understand rapid response for influenza.
And, and those actually rapid response teams have really helped in the time of COVID.
Those same people have been working on COVID.
So I don't have any numbers about vaccination.
I can tell you that the Emerald region has been very involved, especially in the past five years, looking at how to introduce vaccinate influenza vaccination into the to the region.
Several countries have started vaccination programmes for healthcare workers and elderly.
It it varies by country, but there's been a huge increase in the actually the interest in vaccination in countries in the Middle East.
So I don't have specific numbers about this season or the current exact situation on vaccine, but I can tell you that there's been a huge increase through the Emerald region every year they have, or every other year they have a Eastern Mediterranean regional conference on influenza surveillance and other respiratory diseases.
And they've really taken on the topic of vaccination in the past few years and how they can start to promote seasonal influenza vaccination.
Great.
This has been a really fascinating chat.
Thank you so much, Doctor Moen, for having been with us this morning to tell us all about the flu One.
Thank you sharing very valuable information.
Thanks very much.
And whoever has the extra flu vaccine, let us know definitely we will put the call out.
Thank you very much, Margaret, both of you.
So that concludes our agenda.
I just have a few additional announcements for you.
So as Catherine Misu from the from UMTAD has told you, a reminder about the press conference on Monday, 20th of September at 4:00 PM on the publication of the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020.
In terms of meetings being covered by Eunice, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will be opening its virtual 68 session next Monday, the 20th of September at 4:00 PM.
The only other public meeting planned for this session will be the closure meeting on 16th of October at 4:00 PM.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances will not close today as initially planned.
It's 19th session, but only suspended to allow the dialogue with Iraq, which had been postponed, to take place on 5th of October and on 7th of October.
And the Committee on the Rights of the Child will hold its next public meeting for the closure of the session on the 1st of October at 5:00 PM.
And Orlando has of course, briefed you on the Human Rights Council, which continues its 45th session.
Just a reminder, you should have all received yesterday a media advisory inviting you to the inauguration of the new temporary conference facility at the Paledinacion.
This will take place on the 29th of September, next Tuesday at 12:30.
The new building, which was constructed to compensate for the loss of conference rooms, which will be of course closed during the major renovations of the Paledinacion, is going to be called Tempest.
It's a Latin word for time, referring to the temporary character of the new facility.
It's the the building that's along the Flag Alley.
And the inauguration on Tuesday will be in the presence of Tatiana Valovaya, the UN Geneva Director General, and also your Lauber, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations.
You are more than welcome to attend.
We ask you to to inform the UN Information Service, our colleague Sonange Behotegi, because if you wish to take part in the tour, we need to know how many people do are, are, are going to be attending.
So please do that by, by noon on Monday.
Please inform us by noon on Monday so that we can prepare accordingly.
We have a few international days taking place over the next few days.
First, tomorrow, the 26th of September, we will be marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
We have already distributed the Secretary General's message for this day, but we noted that there was an embargo until the 26th tomorrow.
You should have received it.
The 27th of September, the world is marching, World Tourism Day.
In his message, the Secretary General says that in the 40 years since the very first World Tourism Day, much has changed.
Demand for travel has soared.
The world has opened up, allowing more people than ever to explore the globe and it's different cultures.
However, tourism has suffered enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some 120 million jobs are at risk.
The impacts could lead to the loss of between 1.5 and 2.8% of the global GDP.
He says this will particularly affect the most vulnerable countries, including small island developing states.
So these developed countries and many African nations where tourism can represent between 30 and 80% of exports.
So he concludes by saying in this most challenging year, let us focus on tourism's importance for people living in rural areas so we can deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals to leave nobody behind.
Again, we have shared that message with everyone.
If you don't have it, please contact us.
And I think that's all I have for you today.
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Are there any other questions?
I don't see any.
So thank you very much.
Wish you all a very good afternoon and a very good weekend.
Thank you.