Covid Freak-Out Building Up on Medical Waste By James Reed
Here in Victoria, you can face a fine greater than the money I live on annually for not wearing a mask, a mask which does nothing positive, but indeed may have profound ill-health effects. But even the World Health Organization is getting worried about the build-up of Covid waste. It is too bad that the Covid system will eventually drown on its own waste products; sweet irony. And, it must be bad for that other sacred cow, global warming too. I suppose lots of politically correct animals are dying trying to eat the masks. Like dolphins, whales, things like that. I personally don’t have much time for sea creatures, having a land-based prejudice.
“The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) warned Tuesday the very personal protection equipment it pushed people to wear during the coronavirus pandemic, such as surgical masks and gowns, is having an unexpected impact on the environment.
The W.H.O. announced in a report some “87,000 tons” of discarded Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) that was used between March 2020 to November 2021 has ended up discarded as waste.
Coronavirus vaccines have also contributed to a rise in medical waste with 143 tons of extra waste being created by the use of vaccines and needle boxes around the world.
Dr Margaret Montgomery, the W.H.O.’s technical officer for water, sanitation and hygiene and an environmental engineer said the U.N. subsidiary has found people are currently “wearing excessive PPE” and so have updated their message so the public can “become more of a conscious consumer”.
Dr Michael Ryan, the W.H.O.’s emergencies chief, said “it is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right [protective gear], but it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment”, AP reports.
The W.H.O also published on their website advice from Dr Anne Woolridge, the Chair of the Health Care Waste Working Group, who in an apparent call for the end of overzealous mask mandates suggested, “safe and rational use of PPE” will “not only reduce environmental harm from waste, it will also save money, reduce potential supply shortages and further support infection prevention by changing behaviours”.
The World Health Organisation is not however planning to update their messaging on how governments should respond to coronavirus with Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying that nations who are saying the vaccine combined with omicron’s lower severity than previous strains means it’s no longer possible nor necessary to prevent transmission could not be “further from the truth”.
Tedros has maintained that “it’s premature for any country either to surrender or to declare victory”.
The use of PPE and vaccines in the pandemic has had an overbearing effect on the developing world with data indicating that “1 in 3 healthcare facilities globally do not safely manage healthcare waste”, with the number rising to “60 per cent in the least developed countries”.
This not only increases the amount of pollution and waste in these nations but also risks staff injury such as being exposed to dirty needles.”
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