WHO: COVID-19 won’t be last pandemic

COVID-19 won’t be the last pandemic the world will experience, said Tedros Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, as he virtually addressed delegates at the World Government Summit heard on March 30 at Expo 2020 Dubai, Report informs referring to the Gulf News.

But how often pandemics would occur and how much damage they would cause can be prevented and properly tackled by governments, he added.

The first essential lesson learned from the pandemic, Ghebreyesus underlined, is that local production of vaccines is essential, particularly in low and middle-income countries to make them independent from market supply and geo-politics.

“[Vaccine] equity could not be left to market forces or goodwill of donors or shifting geo-policies,” explained Ghebreyesus, adding: “In many [advanced] countries, vaccine rollout has turned the tide and saved lives but more than 80 percent of people in Africa have yet to receive the vaccine.”

“Expanding local production of vaccines and health products is a priority for WHO,” he added.

The second lesson, Ghebreyesus continued, is that a resilient health system is not the same as having an advanced medical care system. He explained: “Health systems have been badly disrupted. For too long too many countries have invested heavily in advanced medical care but too little in public health. This resulted in having health system overwhelmed.”

Ghebreyesus underlined the backbone of public health is a robust primary health care. By ensuring this, future outbreaks can be detected and governments will have a better chance in preventing future pandemics.