WHO Chief: COVID at ‘Critical Juncture’
WHO Europe director says omicron could move Europe to 'a kind of Pandemic endgame' 
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that COVID-19 has now entered its third year and called on countries to come together to end the global pandemic. “We are at a critical juncture,” Tedros said during a news conference in Germany. “We cannot let it continue to drag on, lurching between panic and neglect.” Sunday, WHO’s Europe director told Agence France-Presse that it is “plausible” that the omicron variant has moved Europe “towards a kind of pandemic endgame.” He speculated that 60% of Europeans would be infected with omicron by March. “There will be for quite some weeks and months a global immunity, either thanks to the vaccine or because people have immunity due to the infection, and also lowering seasonality,” Kluge said. However, he also warned, “We anticipate that there will be a period of quiet before COVID-19 may come back towards the end of the year, but not necessarily the pandemic coming back.” Similarly, the leading U.S. epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told ABC’s “This Week” show that the number of omicron cases in the U.S. has started to recede. “Things are looking good,” he said. “I don’t want to be overconfident, but [the falling number of the coronavirus cases are] headed in the right direction.” For the seventh consecutive day Sunday, Beijing’s local government reported new COVID-19 cases, just days before the city hosts the Winter Olympics. Provinces near the capital also reported new infections. Several thousand anti-vaccination mandate protesters marched in Washington Sunday along the National Mall. In the United States, the Supreme Court recently rejected a vaccination mandate President Joe Biden tried to impose on 84 million workers employed at large businesses but let stand a narrower mandatory vaccination order affecting 17 million hospital health care workers. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center in the U.S. reported early Monday that worldwide it has recorded more than 351 million COVID infections and 5.6 million deaths. The center said nearly 10 billion COVID vaccine shots have been administered.