But while great scientific and technological strides were made when countries came together to fight Covid-19, epidemics are even more likely to occur today – epidemics for which the world is ill-prepared.
“Humanity is better equipped than ever to contain outbreaks at source; it has better medical interventions that can reduce morbidity and mortality, and is better organised to respond through international frameworks such as the International Health Regulations,” the authors write.
“Despite these improvements, made in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is every likelihood that the next pandemic will again catch the world napping, without the readiness plans primed for implementation from day one.”
‘The world is not ready for the next pandemic’
The GPMB, an independent body convened by the Director-General of the World Health Organisation and the President of the World Bank, arrived at three critical recommendations for governments and other organisations focusing on pandemic planning.
The first is to prioritise risk profiles and assessments that account for a broad range of factors including those like conflict or climate change that drive up the risk of new epidemics emerging, or those that will impact the world’s ability to respond such as digital connectivity and biomedical innovation.
World leaders must also prioritise equity in their preparedness plans, making sure they “address the specific and basic needs of vulnerable populations,” in particular, access to “medical countermeasures” like vaccines or treatments.
Finally, the GPMB called for collaboration between different sectors to be strengthened.
Joy Phumaphi, a former Minister of Health of Botswana and GPMB co-Chair, said the recommendations amount to “a bold shift in how the global community approaches preparedness”.
As it stands though, the world is not ready for another pandemic, she said.
“The world is not ready for the next pandemic. Africa is not ready, Europe is not ready, the Americas are not ready, Oceania is not ready and Asia is not ready,” she told a media briefing ahead of the report’s publication.
Achieving a heightened level of global preparedness requires mitigating those aspects of modern life like urbanisation or inequity that the report calls risk drivers.
Of the 15 risk drivers identified by the GPMB, it named four as having the greatest impact on the level of risk.
