Retrospect: What COVID-19 revealed about global pandemic preparedness

Editor’s Note: Any opinions expressed in City Voice articles are the authors and do not imply that the City Voice takes a stand one way or another.

Streets that once bustled with life fell silent, borders closed, and everyday routines transformed as humanity grappled with a microscopic adversary, one that seemed to be beyond our grasp. In the early months of 2020, a microscopic virus brought the world to a standstill, exposing the resilience and the vulnerabilities of our global community. The COVID-19 pandemic unfolded as an unprecedented global crisis in the modern era, convulsing the foundations of healthcare systems, economies, and entire societies. Nearly five years later, its effects still haunt our world, leaving over seven million dead across 229 countries and territories. In just one year of the pandemic, the global economy’s collective gross domestic product (GDP) tumbled by 3.4 percent. The economic damage in the United States alone added up to 16 trillion dollars.

As the world approaches five years after that devastating period, the coronavirus continues to infect people at a controlled rate, but the pandemic itself has become a mirror reflecting our preparedness – or lack thereof – for such a global catastrophe that is prone to happening in the near future. In fact, due to trends of increased urbanization and climate change, experts estimate that there is a 27.5% chance that a pandemic as deadly as COVID-19 could occur in the next decade. Just over the summer, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency due to a new monkeypox outbreak. While most cases were concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the virus quickly appeared in dozens of other Western and Central African countries, as well as Europe and even the United States.

While the heroes on the frontlines of the economy fought tirelessly to sustain communities, national governments and intergovernmental organizations neglected proper responses to effectively handle the spread of the virus. Specifically, authorities need to improve currently existing systems for healthcare readiness, international cooperation, and effective communication. Only by understanding these lessons can humanity strive for a future where we are better equipped to protect society when a similar crisis inevitably arises.

The primary concern raised by scientists, even before the pandemic, was that governments simply are not prepared with a strong healthcare system. In 2018, despite warnings from public health experts, the Trump administration decided to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House that was established with the sole purpose to prepare for global health risks like the COVID-19 pandemic. This action, alongside proposed budget cuts that removed key pandemic response sectors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clearly contributed to a delayed response from the US government. However, this mismanagement and lack of preparation could be seen all around the world.

In developing nations that faced shortages of proper medical infrastructure, the key issue was capacity challenges regarding strained hospitals, overburdened healthcare facilities, and scarce resources such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Several hospitals in India, the second-most populated country in the world at the time, equipped their doctors and medical staff with raincoats and helmets instead of N95 masks and other heavy-duty gear. Similarly, in France, popular luxury brands such as LVMH and Chanel responded to desperate calls for help from the government and repurposed their factories to produce hand sanitizer and PPE. A 2021 study also found that the global average of hospital beds was 307.1 hospital beds, and 8.73 ICU beds per 100,000 population, figures that were far worse in lower-income regions.

Overall, the World Health Organization estimated that, in order to meet the global demand during the pandemic, manufacturing had to be increased by 40 percent. Given that this target was nearly unattainable, a vast amount of global contractions and subsequent deaths were caused by a lack of PPE. As one study found, “the outbreak-related global PPE shortage has forced the use of lower-protection PPEs.”

The combination of limited resources and failed governmental actions during the peak of the pandemic took a major toll on the healthcare workers on the frontline. Factors such as an increase in patients, longer working hours, and shortages of supplies caused health workers to report feeling fatigue, loss, and grief at far higher levels than before the pandemic. When surveyed, 93 percent of healthcare workers were experiencing stress and 76 percent reported burnout, attributing their exhausting experiences to a lack of support from the authorities.

This major shortcoming presents itself as an opportunity for improvement as governments aim to become more prepared for pandemics by strengthening their healthcare systems. By investing in higher-quality resources and providing the necessary training to healthcare workers, health administrations can ensure that their response to future pandemics is effective.

However, even if individual governments thoroughly equip and expand their healthcare sectors with more funding, resources, and training, it is necessary for nations to share their assets with one another to combat the virus. Hence, as the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic proved, international cooperation is key to completely stop the spread of diseases in the future.

The key factor of global collaboration is using intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) to coordinate a universal plan of action to stop the spread of the disease. An independent panel initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) described the combined response of the WHO and global governments during the COVID-19 pandemic as a “toxic cocktail.” This description emerges from a series of failures from the leading health-related IGO. The panel outlined that the WHO’s Emergency Committee should have declared the initial outbreak of the virus in China an international emergency a week earlier than it officially did, causing much delay in the reaction of various nations. Furthermore, the WHO’s notion that travel restrictions should be a last resort resulted in Europe and the US wasting an entire month in their response, and were only alarmed about the pandemic’s magnitude when hospitals began to reach maximum capacity.

In the event of a similar crisis in the future, a study found that IGOs like the WHO are instrumental in establishing “sufficient structures and resources’ and facilitating “appropriate communication between countries, health systems and communities.” This improved level of collaboration between governments by means of the WHO greatly benefits all nations, especially “low- and middle-income countries where resources and expertise are often limited.”

Another crucial area of focus regarding international cooperation is the development and subsequent distribution of vaccines. Supported by over 30 billion dollars in funding, the expeditious development of an effective vaccine for the coronavirus disease continues to be recognized as an “unprecedented scientific achievement.” However, the inequitable access to vaccines, driven by factors such as a country’s economic power, political stability, or even physical environment, resulted in vast disparities during its circulation. For instance, the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer must be stored at a temperature equivalent to that of Antarctica in order to be effective. This requirement raised concerns about its suitability in regions with high temperatures, namely West Africa. Even in Nigeria, one of Africa’s economic powerhouses, “six out of ten hospital wards are not equipped with active cold chain equipment, while 58 [percent] of immunization centers are without electricity.”

In order to prepare for the equitable distribution of vaccines during future pandemics, the WHO can work with international nonprofit organizations and individual governments to set up the proper infrastructure for storing vaccines at colder temperatures in developing regions. While the WHO’s COVAX program during the COVID-19 pandemic delivered nearly two billion doses to low-income areas, this process can be streamlined with increased support from entities including the United States, European Union, and United Nations to avert even more deaths or long-term affliction caused by the disease.

There will be moments from these tumultuous past years of the COVID-19 pandemic that history will never be able to forget. Try as they might, the widespread paradigm shifts and fundamental transformations the world has gone through as of late have forever changed the way that humans think. However, as the global response to the pandemic was riddled with obstacles and complications, situations like these present themselves as opportunities to improve the status quo and protect humanity as we venture into the dynamic, unpredictable future.

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Disease forecasters are convinced there’s a 27% chance of another COVID-like pandemic within 10 years—but experts believe there’s a silver bullet

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KRISHNA MANO

Editor at The City Voice | National Junior High Story of the Year Finalist | MIPA 1st Place Award Winner

Hello! My name is Krishna Mano and I am a junior at City High School. This is my fifth year writing for The City Voice and third year as an editor. Apart from the newspaper, I am part of the Speech and Debate team, President of the 10th Grade Student Council, and Treasurer of the NHS. Outside of school, I enjoy playing the violin, reading, skiing, and paddleboarding. If you have any questions about my articles, please contact me at krishna.mano.thecityvoice@gmail.com.