EDITORIAL: One would have thought that the recent brush with Covid would force the global community to be better prepared for the next pandemic; which will come without warning, whenever it does.
Yet a global body has just warned that the fragile process to strengthen preparedness made in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic is at risk, and the world’s capacity to deal with a potential new pandemic remains inadequate.
The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), which issued the warning, is an independent body responsible for assessing the state of the world’s preparedness for pandemics and other health emergencies. And it has observed that countries did not learn the right lessons from Covid. There still isn’t enough international financing, for example, for all countries to have an equal chance of meeting another emergency, especially if there are more large-scale shutdowns.
This particular problem will only worsen down the road, since a world worried about recessions in its biggest economies and bracing for supply disruptions because of wars on two continents will not have any spare cash for a disaster that may or may not come at an unspecified time in the future.
That means the same few countries will hold the R&D (research and development) advantage as last time, which gave them the edge in manufacturing and dissemination of vaccines even as millions of people died across the world just because their governments were not able to produce or procure vaccines in time. Lack of adequate funding for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) means people in the same countries are more vulnerable to the same risks in case of a repeat performance.
The report also stresses that pandemics are not just about health. A “multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder approach” is needed to bring together all parties involved in PPPR, and to support a more integrated and coherent response to pandemics. Currently, such coordination remains weak. Regrettably, there are chances that it will get weaker still since the world is once again dividing into camps because of new wars and the end of the post-cold war unipolar world.
That explains the pessimism in the remarks of GPMB co-chair and former Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who said: “It is clear that a lack of trust at every level, both between and within countries, remains a significant obstacle to preparedness. We call on leaders to move past these divisions and forge a new path based on shared recognition that our future safety depends on meaningful reform and the highest level of political commitment to health emergency preparedness”.
This report needs to be taken very seriously by world leaders, especially in the biggest, richest, and most powerful countries. They have a natural advantage because of their superior economies and industries, but they will also lose a lot, especially trade markets, if they leave the rest of the world behind; something they came dangerously close to during Covid.
It’s already a shame that they are no better prepared to deal with the next threat than the last one. They can cough up billions upon billions of dollars at the speed of light to bolster client states for purely political and financial gain, but they are not bothered to put anything aside for disasters that can prove to be the Black Death of our time.
If this attitude does not change, the world will; much to the disadvantage of rich and poor countries alike.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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