Health

Was the pandemic preventable?

May 17, 2021

Global

EIU COVID-19 Health Funding Tracker

May 17, 2021

Global
Anelia Boshnakova

Senior information specialist, Health Policy and Clinical Evidence

Anelia is a senior information specialist and health policy analyst in the Health Policy and Clinical Evidence team. Her areas of expertise are evidence-based medicine and health policy and systems research. Before joining the EIU, Anelia worked as a senior information specialist at Bazian, and previously at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Anelia holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University.

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The recommendations of the "COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic" report by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response

The published last week delivers stark and categorical recommendations how to make this pandemic the last one humanity will face. The independent expert panel, convened at the request of the World Health Assembly in May 2020, was chaired by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former New Zealand prime minister.

The of the report emphasise that this was a preventable disaster made possible by years of underfunding and neglecting preparedness and epidemic threats, inadequate and slow procedures under the International Health Regulations, a lack of coordinated action and leadership on a global as well as national level, and last but not least, “a lack of planning and gaps in social protection” for vulnerable populations and underestimation of the impact of underlying chronic health conditions.

The report’s recommendations for urgent action in the short term—by 1 September 2021, to be precise—are very specific:

  • High income countries should commit to provide to the 92 low- and middle- income countries of the at least one billion vaccine doses no later than 1 September 2021 and more than two billion doses by mid-2022.
  • The World Trade Organization (WTO) and WHO should facilitate an agreement for voluntary licensing and technology transfer for COVID-19 vaccines. Failing to do this within three months, the report recommends an immediate enforcement of a waiver of intellectual property rights under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
  • G7 countries should immediately commit to provide 60% of the US$19 billion required for in 2021 for vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, and strengthening of health systems
  • Every country should apply public health measures systematically and rigorously.
  • WHO should immediately develop a roadmap to guide and monitor the implementation of country and global efforts towards ending the pandemic.

 

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