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The pandemic surprised the governments of all countries, although it had been foretold by scientists for a long time. It exposed numerous weaknesses of health care systems and tested the ability to respond to crisis responses. WHO argues that we had time and opportunities to prepare. So why did we stand unprepared for the fight?
WHO list. Mankind is threatened by unknown pathogens
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been updating the list of the greatest global threats to public health since 2015. The list was compiled by a group of 30 microbiologists, zoologists and public health experts from around the world. It covers diseases caused by the most dangerous viruses, especially those for which vaccines or drugs have not yet been developed.
WHO experts agree that with the development of civilization and the entry of humans into new wilderness zones, the emergence of new disease outbreaks that can lead to a global catastrophe is inevitable. In 2018, the organization added the mysterious disease X to its list. WHO warned from the very beginning that this disease, due to its high epidemic potential and insufficient or lack of countermeasures, would take many lives. Disease X is a representation of everything that threatens us from previously unknown pathogens or new varieties of already existing viruses and bacteria.
In February 2020, after reports from China and other countries where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus reached the SARS-CoV-XNUMX coronavirus, Dr. Marion Koopmans, a WHO specialist in virology, wrote in the medical journal “Cell”:
Whether the epidemic is brought under control or not, the coronavirus fits the first real pandemic challenge of disease X, on the WHO’s list of priority diseases for which we must prepare in our current globalized society.
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The emergence of the new virus has taught us a lesson for the future and has exposed the weaknesses of health systems that are not adequately supported in many countries and are on the verge of collapse. As COVID-19 spread around the world, paralyzing more hospitals and even funeral homes, we began to realize that despite the modern medical solutions available today, including robotic surgery and innovative immunotherapy, failure to face the virus is real. scenario – for the whole world.
We are not ready for X’s disease
In 2018, the “A World of Risk” report was published, in which the World Health Organization emphasized that we are not prepared for disease X, and that national governments are constantly ignoring WHO’s recommendations to prevent the death of millions of people. A year later, scientists from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, John Hopkins Center for Health Security and The Economist Intelligence Unit created the Global Health Security Index to assess the health security of 195 countries. The report illustrates the preparation of individual countries for an outbreak of an infectious disease or the arrival of another biological disaster.
Researchers compiled a health safety rating on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 means the country is fully prepared for the threat. Each country’s overall global health safety index was calculated on the basis of six categories: prevention of the spread of pathogens and toxins, early detection and reporting of a pandemic, rapid pandemic response, strong healthcare system, compliance with international standards, as well as risk and vulnerability assessment biological.
- Find out: What is a pandemic?
Out of these six categories Health systems performed the worst, with a global average rating of just 26,4. The global average health safety index has been calculated at 40,2 / 100, which proves that there is no global preparedness for a pandemic. According to the Global Health Security Index, 73 percent. countries of the world are prepared in less than 50 percent. The USA, England, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia were rated the best, but the coronavirus has already shown that, in the case of the United States and the United Kingdom, preparation, although in theory better than in other countries, has failed. Algeria and Iraq are at the bottom of the list.
In an interview with The New York Times, Dr. Peter Daszak, WHO expert and chairman of the Forum on Microbiological Hazards at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (USA), said that preventing a pandemic is not impossible, but governments find countermeasures too costly and pharmaceutical companies are operating for profit. The WHO, on the other hand, has neither the funds nor the strength to force global cooperation.
We read in the NYT material that there are already scientific tools in place to create some kind of virus protection system – one that would allow us to pursue a wide range of important global projects, develop vaccines and drugs against multiple pathogens, and identify potential high-risk viruses. Since it’s almost impossible to predict which virus could cause the next pandemic, scientists have long pointed to the need to develop antiviral drugs and vaccines that are effective against a wide range of strains. But resources are lacking. A drug with a broad effect against coronaviruses could already be developed in 2003, when the SARS epidemic broke out. “The only reason we didn’t do this is because there was not enough financial support,” says Dr. Vincent Racaniello, a microbiologist and immunologist at Columbia University.
- See also: What does WHO say about the COVID-19 pandemic? The most important statements
Not only finances. What else limits the possibilities of defense?
Most countries, whether they are wealthy or struggling with fiscal problems, have shown weakness in dealing with the pandemic that hit the world in early 2020. Why? In an interview with Medonet, Prof. Waleria Hryniewicz, specialist in the field of medical microbiology.
There are a number of reasons. The first is delayed information from China, which did not come until the end of December, when the epidemic was already in full swing, as the first cases appeared at the end of October. The second is the delay in declaring an epidemic followed by a pandemic by the WHO. The third reason is the disregard of the January information-warning of secret services by most EU countries and the USA.
There was no coordinated, unified action in Europe for common policy and data sharing on disease. No conclusions were drawn from the lessons of China, Taiwan or South Korea. The delay in making decisions about traffic restrictions (winter breaks, elections, mass events) resulted in a rapid outbreak of the epidemic in many European countries.
In many countries, including Poland, there are many years of limitations in the costs of diagnostics and infection control. The low attractiveness of the specialization in infectious diseases, medical microbiology and epidemiology results in a drastically decreasing number of specialists. There is no investment in the activities of the sanitary inspection or in the highly substantive National Institute of Public Health, which, in the event of an emergency, could coordinate activities throughout the country.
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Have a question about the coronavirus? Send them to the following address: [email protected]. You will find a daily updated list of answers HERE: Coronavirus – frequently asked questions and answers.