UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to deliver briefing on the organization’s 2022 priorities
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres will deliver a briefing today on the organization’s ten main priorities for 2022.
Guterres has already declared that recovery from COVID-19 should be the overarching objective for the year. He divided this recovery into four separate parts: universal vaccination against COVID-19, economic aid to developing countries, combating misinformation and international reconciliation. Expect these four themes to feature heavily in today’s briefing.
A recovery from the pandemic during 2022 in all these areas is unlikely and only significant progress towards universal vaccination is probable. Much of the developed world has already achieved high rates, which will increase the supply available to developing countries. However, the need for booster shots and vaccine skepticism across the world may hinder progress. The UN is likely to confront these challenges and will seek to persuade member states that as long as there are places with low vaccination coverage, the world remains at risk from new variants of the virus. Given the emergence of partially vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variants such as Delta and Omicron in 2021, this argument will be more persuasive in 2022, leading to high vaccination rates in developing countries by the end of the year.
Wake up smarter with an assessment of the stories that will make headlines in the next 24 hours. Download The Daily Brief.
