OEA - Documento CP ACTA. 2364 25 de 2025

ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS OEA/Ser.G

CONSEJO PERMANENTE CP/ACTA 2364/22 (Transcripción)

25 febrero 2022

TRANSCRIPCIÓN DEL ACTA DE LA SESIÓN EXTRAORDINARIA

DEL CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA

ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

CELEBRADA EL 25 DE FEBRERO DE 2022

Se ruega a las misiones permanentes enviar a la Secretaría, Unidad de Servicios Editoriales, al correo electrónico jmontes@oas.org, o a la Oficina MNB 1-13 del Edificio Principal, dentro del plazo de cinco (5) días laborales a partir del 17 de abril de 2025, las correcciones de forma que consideren necesarias. El acta así corregida será sometida a la aprobación del Consejo Permanente y constituirá la versión final.

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Nómina de los miembros que asistieron a la sesión 1

Aprobación del proyecto de orden del día 3

La pandemia de COVID-19: creando resiliencia en el sector de atención de la salud 3

CONSEJO PERMANENTE DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS

ACTA DE LA SESIÓN EXTRAORDINARIA

CELEBRADA EL 25 DE FEBRERO DE 2022

En la ciudad de Washington, D.C., a las diez y tres de la mañana del viernes 25 de febrero de 2022, celebró sesión extraordinaria el Consejo Permanente de la Organización de los Estados Americanos para considerar el tema “La pandemia de COVID-19: creando resiliencia en el sector de atención de la salud”. Presidió la sesión el Embajador Everson Hull, Representante Permanente de Saint Kitts y Nevis y Presidente del Consejo Permanente. Asistieron los siguientes miembros:

Embajador Ronald Sanders, Representante Permanente de Antigua y Barbuda

Embajadora Lou-Anne Gilchrist, Representante Permanente de San Vicente y las Granadinas

Embajadora Rita Claverie Diaz de Sciolli, Representante Permanente de Guatemala

Embajador Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado, Representante Permanente de Colombia

Embajador Carlos Alberto Játiva Naranjo, Representante Permanente del Ecuador

Embajador Noel Anderson Lynch, Representante Permanente de Barbados

Embajadora Yolande Yvonne Smith, Representante Permanente de Grenada

Embajador Gustavo Tarre Briceño, Representante Permanente de Venezuela

Embajadora Luz Elena Baños Rivas, Representante Permanente de México

Embajador Hugh Adsett, Representante Permanente del Canadá

Embajador Josué A. Fiallo Billini, Representante Permanente de la República Dominicana

Embajador Washington Abdala, Representante Permanente del Uruguay

Embajadora Alejandra Solano Cabalceta, Representante Permanente de Costa Rica

Embajador Issa Kort Garriga, Representante Permanente de Chile

Héctor Enrique Arce Zaconeta, Representante Permanente de Bolivia

Embajador Samuel Hinds, Representante Permanente de Guyana

Embajador Agustín Vásquez Gómez, Representante Permanente de El Salvador

Embajador Leon Charles, Representante Permanente de Haití

Embajador Arturo McFields, Representante Permanente de Nicaragua

Embajador Otávio Brandelli, Representante Permanente del Brasil

Ministro Raúl Mariano Martínez Villalba, Representante Interino del Paraguay

Segunda Secretaria Tracee Dorestant, Representante Interina de las Bahamas

Bradley A. Freden, Representante Interino de los Estados Unidos

Segunda Secretaria Juanita Cleopatra Lont, Representante Interina de Suriname

Ministra María Cecilia Villagra, Representante Interina de Argentina

Ministra Consejera Saira Esmeralda Ponce Rosales, Representante Alterna de Honduras

Bradley A. Freden, Representante Interino de los Estados Unidos

Segunda Secretaria Juanita Cleopatra Lont, Representante Interina de Suriname

Ministra María Cecilia Villagra, Representante Interina de Argentina

Ministra Consejera Saira Esmeralda Ponce Rosales, Representante Alterna de Honduras

Ministro Consejero Deon L. Williams, Representante Alterno de Jamaica

Primer Secretario Jason Darcy Fields, Representante Alterno de Guyana

Consejero Michael Anthony Mena, Representante Alterno de Belize

Señora Nisha Niketa Paul, Representante Alterna de Santa Lucía

Ministra Ana Gabriela Vasquez Rivas Plata, Representante Alterna del Perú

Embajadora María Fernanda Cortizo, Representante Alterna de Panamá

Consejera Sonia Rosita Boddie-Thompson, Representante Alterna de Saint Kitts y Nevis

Estuvieron también presentes el Secretario General, Luis Almagro Lemes, y el Secretario General Adjunto, Embajador Nestor Mendez, Secretario del Consejo Permanente.

El PRESIDENTE: Good morning, distinguished Permanent Representatives, Alternate Representatives, Mr. Secretary General, Mr. Assistant Secretary General, Permanent Observers, special guests, ladies and gentlemen.

APROBACIÓN DEL PROYECTO DE ORDEN DEL DÍA

El PRESIDENTE: Following verification of the quorum by the Secretariat, I am pleased to declare open this special meeting of the Permanent Council, which has been convened by the Chair pursuant to the authority vested in the Chair in Article 37 of the Rules of Procedure, for the purpose of considering the topic entitled ‘The Covid-19 Pandemic: Building Resilience in the Healthcare Sector,’ as contained in the order of business, document CP/OD.2364/22, which I hereby submit for the consideration of the Council.

[El proyecto de orden del día contiene los siguientes puntos:

1. Aprobación del orden del día (CP/OD-2364/22)

2. La pandemia de COVID-19: creando resiliencia en el sector de atención de la salud

• Presentaciones a cargo de:

[El proyecto de orden del día contiene los siguientes puntos:

1. Aprobación del orden del día (CP/OD-2364/22)

2. La pandemia de COVID-19: creando resiliencia en el sector de atención de la salud

• Presentaciones a cargo de:

• Doctora Carissa Etienne, Directora de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS)

• Doctor Mitchell Wolfe, Director Médico de los Centros para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades de Estados Unidos (CDC)

• Señor Camilo Cid, Oficial de Asuntos Sociales de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL)

• Señor Benigno López Benítez, Vicepresidente de Sectores y Conocimiento del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID)

• Comentarios de las delegaciones de los Estados Miembros.]

There being no observations, we will proceed to adopt it without amendment.

La pandemia de COVID-19: creando resiliencia en el sector de

atención de la salud

El PRESIDENTE: Esteemed colleagues, the Covid-19 pandemic is severely testing health care systems around the world, leading to a human cost far beyond the impact of the disease itself. Understanding health system resilience has never been more essential.

As you may recall, at its last regular session, the OAS General Assembly urged all member states to make the greatest possible effort to continue strengthening public investment in health to allow for improvement in the expansion of national and regional capacities for the development and production of raw materials, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and therapeutics.

In this context, and in order to achieve a speedy recovery of regional health sectors and economies, while building resilience in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, OAS member states must redouble their efforts to overcome our region’s vulnerability and external dependency during global health emergencies, allowing for adequate preparedness and response capabilities in our region.

As we continue to monitor the state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Americas and its multidimensional impact across all sectors, the Chair has convened this meeting so that we can hear expert perspectives from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on the challenges facing all sectors of our society, and to chart the path towards building resilience in the post-pandemic recovery.

Before I proceed, permit me to express my appreciation and thanks to the Pan American Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for their efforts in bringing this special session to fruition.

I am honored to open this panel discussion with an initial presentation by Dr. Carissa Etienne. Dr. Etienne is the Director of the Pan American Health Organization. She was elected for a second five-year term in 2017. Dr. Etienne is a life-long champion and crusader for primary health care as a driver for equity in health and development. She is a native of Dominica.

Dr. Etienne received her medical degree from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and her M.S. degree in Community Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Etienne, welcome back to the OAS Permanent Council. It is my distinct honor and privilege to offer you the floor.

La DIRECTORA DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN PANAMERICANA DE LA SALUD (OPS): Thank you very much.

Honorable Ambassador Dr. Everson Hull, Chair of the Permanent Council; honorable members of the Permanent Council and associate members; Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests.

La DIRECTORA DE LA ORGANIZACIÓN PANAMERICANA DE LA SALUD (OPS): Thank you very much.

Honorable Ambassador Dr. Everson Hull, Chair of the Permanent Council; honorable members of the Permanent Council and associate members; Assistant Secretary General Nestor Mendez, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests.

Let me thank you, Ambassador, for inviting me to share an update on the Covid-19 pandemic in the region of the Americas. I cannot help but state that we meet here today under the cloud of fractured peace in Europe which threatens peace and stability across the world. We pray for peace and strive for justice for all peoples.

Today I am grateful to be among like-minded leaders who understand the interdependence between our health, our economies, and our societies. Let me congratulate the Organization of American States on the adoption of an important resolution at the November 2021 General Assembly on the developments in the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the hemisphere.

Much has changed since the last time we were together in September 2021. Over the last few months, countries throughout the Americas have felt the impact of a new, more infectious variant. Omicron’s arrival coincided with holidays and cultural celebrations throughout our region that created a perfect environment for Covid to spread as people gathered, traveled, and met indoors, often unmasked. Countries reached new infection peaks, and across every corner of the Americas, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths also surged.

Just two months into 2022, the Americas have already reported more than 40 million Covid cases and more than 184,000 Covid-related deaths. That means we have already lost more people to Covid this year than the entire population of Saint Lucia. And we have seen more infections than there are people in Peru. Indeed, in the first six weeks of this year, up to 202 people died every hour in the Americas from Covid-19.

These figures are shocking and a reminder that we cannot afford to be complacent in the face of this ever-changing virus. And the good news is that, thanks to the protective power of vaccines, Covid deaths are dropping. This underscores the importance of expanding access to vaccines, including boosters where available, to save lives.

And thanks to the hard-earned efforts of countries throughout the Americas—and the generous support of donors like the United States of America, Canada, and Spain, that helped our region secure doses when supply was limited—65 per cent of people across Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. So today, the region has some of the highest Covid-19 vaccination coverage in the world.

But there are also serious gaps in vaccine coverage, and some countries are being left behind. In the Caribbean, while the Cayman Islands has protected more than 90 per cent of its population with Covid vaccines, less than 1 per cent of people in Haiti have been immunized. As we strive to reach the goal set by the World Health Organization of vaccinating 70 per cent of the population in every country by July 2022, thirteen countries in the region have yet to reach 40 per cent coverage, and ten of these countries are in the Caribbean.

More than one in four people across the Americas have yet to receive a single dose of protection. And if we zoom in on lowand middle-income countries in our region, more than half of people have yet to receive a single Covid-19 vaccine. We are also facing serious challenges of vaccine hesitancy in some countries that have ready access to vaccines.

But there is a trend that we are seeing now in the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic that is characterized by a continuing decline in cases and deaths across all the four subregions. Last week, there were 2.2 million new Covid cases in the region—a 28 per cent decline as compared to the previous week. After six consecutive weeks of increases, we are now seeing deaths fall for the first time since the beginning of the Omicron wave. Deaths have fallen to 29,000 new deaths reported in our region, a drop of 9 per cent.

However, many places are still facing the crest of the infection surge, so we must stay vigilant and uphold the measures that have been proven to save lives. We are not out of the woods yet.

All of us in this virtual room are looking for answers as to how we can get back to normal; how we can get people back to their jobs; how we can give families the assurance of safety in schools and family gatherings.

The first two years of the response have clearly shown that investments in pandemic preparedness are critical in the management of a pandemic response. It has also shown that an integrated response across sectors can be highly complex and requires permanent adjustment of existing strategies, as well as the adoption of new, validated evidence-based tools.

But I think it is important that we continue to ask ourselves: How did we get there in the first place? And it is inequality that has allowed the Americas to experience more Covid deaths than anywhere else, and lose more progress—whether in health, the economy or education—than our neighbors. We must address those inequalities to build more prosperous economies, healthier communities, and more resilient societies!

We will again have the opportunity at the Ninth Summit of the Americas in June of this year to address some of the key points raised in last year’s General Assembly resolution on Covid-19. PAHO’s work has already begun with the member states, the OAS, and the host country, the United States, to operationalize the Summit’s proposed Action Plan on Health and Resilience in the Americas. PAHO is highlighting priority proposals that fit well within the Summit’s Action Plan on Health and Resilience, and which are essential for the region’s recovery

The first priority is resilience through preparedness. Ensuring that all countries and territories in the Americas have the capacity to detect, alert, and respond to health emergencies is paramount to overcoming the current crisis and to prevent and control future pandemics.

PAHO has helped build a robust and innovative surveillance network that enables us to keep a close eye on how this virus is evolving. This is going to be important now and into the future. Today, the Regional Genomic Surveillance Network for SARS-CoV-2 is supporting countries to identify the emergence and spread of Covid-19 variants. And in the next few months we will work to expand the capacity for genomic surveillance within countries.

We have also developed a modeling tool that tracks cases, forecasts trends, and helps countries measure the impact of different public health measures to inform their responses.

Countries need to continue leveraging these resources and to prioritize investments in health surveillance to get us through this pandemic and to be better able to prepare us for what lies ahead.

The second priority I want to highlight is resilience in health technology and medical product manufacturing capacity and supply. Latin America and the Caribbean depend almost entirely on other regions to produce the raw pharmaceutical materials, medicines, vaccines, and other health technologies that our populations need to stay healthy. Increasing regional production of medical products is a priority to address the glaring gaps in access to Covid-19 vaccines, medicines, laboratory supplies, equipment, and other essential supplies.

In this regard, PAHO is advancing work on the Regional Platform for mRNA vaccine technology, and is collaborating with other partners to expand capacity for innovation and the sustainable production of vaccines, medicines, and other health technology to benefit all countries in the region—and this is very important—in a spirit of regional integration, regional sufficiency, and solidarity.

Our region has the building blocks to make it happen: strong academic institutions, existing manufacturing capacity, robust regulatory systems, and a strong history of cooperation. But for this to work, we need sustained financial and political commitment.

And finally, the third priority is resilient health systems and societies. Few countries invest as much in their health systems as they should, leaving them prone to shortages in health personnel and essential supplies, as well as to weak public health systems. We need countries to mobilize funds and invest the recommended 6 per cent of GDP into their health systems to keep people safe and healthy, and to channel those resources effectively where they are needed the most. And, in the light of Covid, this is like an insurance mechanism to ensure that we remain fit for economic development.

Prioritizing health means hiring and training enough health workers to make Covid care available to all, while maintaining services for other health programs and types of care. It requires that we strengthen the primary health care and the first level of care to deliver quality, effective service for essential health programs and for Covid.

It means making health care more accessible to the poorest and most vulnerable, since nearly 30 per cent of people in our region could not access health services well prior to Covid, because of who they are, where they live, or because the cost is simply too high.

Across all of these priorities, we also need greater dialogue between health and finance institutions, industry partners, and civil society, so that decisions affecting our health systems reflect the national expertise, and that our health policies are transparent, harmonized, and efficient.

PAHO has been working to ensure that the region is prepared for the transition from pandemic to an endemic situation, to ensuring better preparedness for the future, and to accelerating the agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Universal Health, and well-being for all.

Before closing, I want to recognize the tremendous efforts of all countries in our region to respond to this enormous challenge. Every day gives us the opportunity to work more closely together, building on our individual strengths to collectively limit the impact of this pandemic.

As we continue to fight this virus, we must do more than just stop Covid-19: we must commit to building a fairer, healthier world. That means ensuring our region is more resilient and better prepared to tackle the next challenge, while redoubling our efforts to achieve the promise of health for all.

I look forward to joining future meetings of the Permanent Council and certainly the Joint Summit Working Group so we can put forth a unified vision at the upcoming Summit of the Americas.

Thank you, Mr.Ambassador.

El PRESIDENTE: Thank you for your most informative presentation. You have provided much food for thought and also much food for concern. You have outlined a very carefully defined roadmap going ahead, and I expect that it will be pursued as diligently as you presented it to us.

I am now pleased to offer the floor to Dr. Mitchell Wolfe, who will share with us the current state of the pandemic in the United States; efforts to strengthen public health systems to prevent, detect, and respond to future pandemics, as well as any lessons that can be learned from the current crisis to better help our nations prepare for the future.

Dr. Wolfe is the Chief Medical Officer of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In this role, he has provided support for the CDC Director and interacts with key public health partners, the United States Congress, the White House, and other government and public health officials. In addition, he leads the development of objectives and planning for CDC’s Global Health Strategy.

Dr. Wolfe joined the CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the National Center for Environmental Health, leading investigations on infectious disease, mortality, age-related mortality, and exposures to heavy metals related to a large forest fire.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Vermont, his MSc. in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has an American Board Certification in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health and, in 2020 he retired from the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service with the rank of Rear Admiral.

Dr. Wolfe, welcome to the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States. You have the floor, sir.

El DIRECTOR MÉDICO DE LOS CENTROS PARA EL CONTROL Y PREVENCIÓN DE ENFERMEDADES DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS: Thank you very much, Ambassador Hull. I also thank Dr. Etienne and all the dignitaries and distinguished guests that are present today for inviting me to this discussion with my fellow panelists. This is an unprecedented time for all of us and it is an honor for me to be able to speak to you today and be part of the discussion.

Let me start by speaking briefly about the current state of the pandemic in the United States and its implication for U.S. domestic public health strategy. Then I will speak about CDC’s activities globally to fight Covid-19 and strengthen global health security for the future.

As of February 24, we have seen more than 78 million cases of Covid-19 and over 936,000 deaths across the United States during this pandemic. With approximately 2,200 deaths every day in the United States alone, Covid continues to have an unacceptably heavy toll.

But there is reason for optimism. Cases in the United States and in most of the world are decreasing, and the risk of disease, hospitalization, and death is reduced with the Omicron variant, especially among people who are up to date on their Covid vaccine.

Our best tool continues to be vaccines and boosters. We are looking at vaccine effectiveness against hospitalizations with both the Delta and Omicron variants. CDC recently published data showing that, for both variants, there was a decline in vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization with just the primary series, but following a third dose or a booster dose, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization increased, reaching 90 per cent against the Omicron variant. Overall, those who received a booster dose had the most protection against emergency room visits, urgent care clinic visits, and hospitalizations.

Just last week, we published data on the importance of Covid-19 vaccination among pregnant people, showing that there is a 60 per cent reduction in Covid-19 hospitalization in babies younger than six months if their parent is vaccinated during pregnancy.

It is critical at this point that we both respond to the current pandemic and plan for the future. Going forward, we all need to work together to build a stronger and more resilient public health system. As we know--and as this pandemic has shown--we are all interconnected, and a health threat anywhere is a health threat everywhere. It is therefore critical that we all work together and, to do this, we must focus in a number of areas: strengthening our public health work force, preparing for future health threats (both global and domestic), strengthening our public health laboratory infrastructure, modernizing our data systems, and addressing health equity in all that we do.

Just as the pandemic has exacerbated public health issues, it has also exposed weaknesses in our public health infrastructure and stretched that infrastructure to its limits. In the United States, we have seen the impact of the chronic underfunding of the public health system at the local, state, federal, tribal, and territorial levels.

The pandemic has also shown us the hard truth about health equity in the United States: that marginalized communities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and, more clearly than ever before, we have come to understand the real inseparability of socioeconomic conditions and the wellbeing of the public.

With a US$7.4 billion investment in the American Rescue Plan in our domestic public health infrastructure, we now have the chance to build a stronger and more resilient public health system for the future, and make sure that the need for health equity informs everything we do.

We have created a new Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics to provide pandemic forecasting and modeling threats to the public, and we have dramatically strengthened our capacity to do genomic sequencing. Collaborating and cooperating on forecasting and sequencing is something that I think there is a real opportunity for the Western Hemisphere in our region.

With billions of dollars of new funding, we have begun to strengthen and modernize our data, public health laboratory, and emergency preparedness systems.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made clear that we need to nurture the next generation of infectious disease epidemiologists, laboratorians, and providers. Investments in this important area are increasing, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

CDC has also proposed initiatives that will help streamline data modernization and laboratory innovation and advance molecular detection and genomic sequencing. And all of these are very important not just for us, but for all countries.

Let me talk briefly about CDC’s work with other countries.

CDC’s activities to address health extend far beyond the United States. Since the beginning of this century, the world has experienced major outbreaks—from Sars and H1N1, Ebola, Zika, and now Sars-CoV-2. CDC has worked with other countries and with WHO and closely with PAHO to respond to hundreds of outbreaks around the world every year, some that make global news and many that nobody ever hears about, which is good news. Many are controlled before they become an epidemic or a pandemic.

We have worked for over seventy years overseas, and currently we have almost 2,000 staff in over sixty countries worldwide, working with other countries to address health threats, which is a core part of our mission. We work very closely with Ministries of Health, WHO, PAHO, and other partners around the world on disease surveillance and outbreak activities; emergency management, including the development of emergency operation centers, safe laboratory systems and diagnostics; and developing a workforce, including training frontline responders, laboratorians, disease detectives, emergency managers, and other public health professionals who are responsible for taking the lead when crises happen.

Some of the main pillars of our global health security work include enhancing national public health institutes as part of a sustainable public health system. These institutes, which we call NPHIs—National Public Health Institutes—serve as a home for countries’ public health activities, by bringing surveillance, laboratory, emergency management, and public health workforce and research all under one roof.

We also collaborate with countries to develop sustainable public health workforce. CDC’s Field Epidemiology Program, or FETP, focuses on training a global workforce of field epidemiologists or disease detectives, who respond to outbreaks and lead public health responses. Since 1980, this program has worked with more than eighty countries who have trained more than 19,000 graduates. These trained professionals have been leaders in outbreak response around the world for countries for many outbreaks, including polio, Ebola, Zika, yellow fever, and Covid.

At this point, I want to acknowledge what Dr. Etienne reported regarding vaccine rates in the region. This is a major accomplishment, and I want to congratulate all countries for their extremely hard work to get this far in vaccinating the population. It is clear, as she pointed out, that there are still gaps and CDC is currently providing technical assistance to many countries around the world and we are happy to discuss the potential for additional technical collaboration.

CDC is also strengthening our overseas work to be more sustainable with our long-term vision and, as part of this, in addition to our country offices, we have established four regional offices in South East Asia and the Middle East, North Africa, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and in South America. Our current South American Regional Office was launched in 2020. It is headquartered in Brasilia, Brazil, but I want to be clear that it works with countries across South America. The CDC is also looking to establishing a regional office for Central America and the Caribbean.

The mission of the regional office is to provide leadership on global public health strategies and apply CDC’s abilities and resources to strengthen dise