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World Health Organization says pandemic isn’t done after Biden called it ‘over’ in US

FILE - This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19. The coronavirus mutant that just became dominant in the United States as of May 2022 is a member of the omicron family. But scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. (Hannah A. Bullock, Azaibi Tamin/CDC via AP, File)
FILE - This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19. The coronavirus mutant that just became dominant in the United States as of May 2022 is a member of the omicron family. But scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. (Hannah A. Bullock, Azaibi Tamin/CDC via AP, File) FILE - This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which cause COVID-19. The coronavirus mutant that just became dominant in the United States as of May 2022 is a member of the omicron family. But scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. (Hannah A. Bullock, Azaibi Tamin/CDC via AP, File)

By Dong Lyu / Bloomberg News (Tribune News Service) 2 min read

The World Health Organization said the world isn’t at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, just days after President Joe Biden declared it’s over in the United States.

“Being able to see the end does not mean we are at the end,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an online briefing Thursday.

Tedros, who said last week the end of the pandemic is in sight, warned there are still large gaps in vaccination in poor countries, risks of the virus evolving into more dangerous variants and hardly any access to life-saving COVID-19 drugs in low-income nations.

During an interview that aired Sunday, Biden said the pandemic is over in the U.S. as cases and fatalities decline and he seeks to steer the world’s biggest economy away from a recession. Still, hundreds were dying each day from the disease during the summer.

While rich countries are awash in vaccines and treatments, the situation remains far different in poor ones. The vaccination rate stands at just 19% in low-income nations, compared with almost 75% in rich ones, the WHO said in a separate statement.