As the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases continues to escalate on a daily basis and spread to different countries, it is time to acknowledge, despite the statements otherwise, emanating from the World Health Organisation (WHO), that the world is facing a pandemic.
At the time of writing, the number stands at 80,000 across 28 countries. There are 77, 658 reported cases in China, with 2,663 deaths; 977 cases in South Korea along with ten deaths; 691 confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan, along with four deaths, and 200 reported cases and seven deaths in Italy.
On Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Head of WHO, told reporters in Geneva, “For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this coronavirus, and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or death.”
“Does this virus have pandemic potential? Absolutely it has. Are we there yet? From our assessment, not yet? ” Tedros noted, whist adding, that labeling the outbreak a pandemic could create unnecessary fear.
As worldwide panic begins to set in, countries are adopting their own approaches to the situation. Over the weekend, a flight from South Korea to Israel had to return to South Korea, after only the Israeli passengers were allowed to disembark the plane. In Canada, where ten cases have been reported, steps are being taken to treat the situation as a potential pandemic.
“These signs [the spread at the community level, from person to person, in several countries] are concerning, and they mean that the window of opportunity for containment…for stopping the global spread of the virus, is closing,” Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, told reporters in a teleconference on Monday.
This outbreak does not come as a complete surprise to the relevant authorities, who, in fact were anticipating something of this nature. In the September 2019 edition of Foreign Policy magazine, in an article titled, “The World Knows an Apocalyptic Pandemic Is Coming” Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist, Laurie Garrett presents a daunting picture of the lack of alertness by world leaders for the current situation.
Garrett delves into a 2019 report compiled by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) which had been assembled in 2018 in response to a request from the office of the United Nations secretary-general. The GPMB, jointly convened by the World Bank and WHO, commissioned “expert studies and issued a scathing attack on the political, financial, and logistical state of pandemic preparedness affairs.”
The report warned that there was a “very real threat” of a pandemic sweeping the planet. It further noted that a deadly pathogen spread airborne that could wipe out almost five percent of the global economy. The economic impacts of recent outbreaks as recorded by the GPMB report were staggering. The 2003 SARS epidemic cost the global economy $40 billion, whilst the 2009 swine flu outbreak and the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic, cost $50 billion and $53 billion, respectively.
The GPMB report listed seven initiatives which be implemented worldwide to improve mankind’s odds against the microbes, which Garrett points out, have been on the table in one form or another for decades now.
“Preparedness and response systems and capabilities for disease outbreaks are not sufficient to deal with the enormous impact, rapid spread and shock to health, social and economic systems of a highly lethal pandemic, whether natural, accidental or deliberately released. There is insufficient R&D investment and planning for innovative vaccine development and manufacture, broad-spectrum antivirals, appropriate non-pharmaceutical interventions,” the GPMB report states. “Epidemic control costs would completely overwhelm the current financing arrangements for emergency response.”
However, the GPMB report reserves its most potent punches for political leaders. “Preparedness is hampered by the lack of continued political will at all levels,” reads the report. “Although national leaders respond to health crises when fear and panic grow strong enough, most countries do not devote the consistent energy and resources needed to keep outbreaks from escalating into disasters.”
In seven years, between 2011 and 2018, WHO battled 1,483 epidemics, a number which will only expand as the global effects of climate change are compounded. As long as elected world leaders continue to turn a blind eye to these potential disasters, the battle with the microbes will ensue.
