The WHO and world leaders can prevent the Covid calamity, experts say
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A rapid and collaborative international response to the 2019 Covid-19 outbreak in China could prevent a global catastrophe in 2020, according to a rigorous report by world leaders and the World Health Organization on its response to the pandemic.
Expert study Independent Pandemic Preparedness and Response PanelAs mandated by the WHO, it sets out lessons for the prevention of future pandemics and makes a number of recommendations for reform.
The new treaty, which forms the Global Council on Health Threats, provides WHO with more government powers and surveillance powers to research and publish information on disease outbreaks, and new funding for the $ 5 billion International Pandemic Funding Facility (IPFF). – Prepare $ 10 billion a year and call for $ 50 billion to $ 100 billion in a short-term health emergency.
“The panel recommends a basic transformation designed to ensure the highest level of commitment to a new system.
The review does not examine the origin of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. But he criticizes the Chinese authorities and the WHO for acknowledging that the virus was spreading among the people of Wuhan and then warning the world about human-to-human transmission.
“For the future, a preventive approach should be used from the outset, recognizing that respiratory disease can spread from one person to another unless and until the opposite is established,” the report says.
The table is very hard on International Health Regulations, as it is the only tool that legally binds them to the outbreaks of disease. “The way it is built today [they] it serves to limit rather than facilitate rapid action, “the report says.” When it comes to travel, it’s hard to see that the IHR’s restrictions are realistic for our highly interconnected pandemic times. “
“If travel restrictions were to be implemented more quickly and widely, that would be a serious impediment to the rapid transmission of the virus,” Clark said in a press release before the review was published. “We need to realize that we live in the 21st century and not in the Middle Ages.”
The jury criticized the WHO for saying that Covide had no public health emergency concerns until 30 January. On March 11 it was officially called a pandemic.
The harshest criticism was leveled at wealthy nations in Europe and North America over the inaction of “wasting February 2020” – “when it could have been a lost month when many countries were able to take measures to sustain Sars-Cov-2 and global health, social and economic catastrophe.” ”.
When the severity of the crisis was finally acknowledged in March 2020, “there was a crazy mix of PPE, therapeutics and other equipment,” Clark said. “Added to that was the lack of global leadership.”
To provide leadership in the future, the panel calls on world government leaders to form a Global Council on Health Threats and a Pandemic Framework Agreement to provide a stronger legal basis for action. These he recommends launching at a summit around the world, a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, which should be convened for this year.
The council will channel IPFF funding to organizations that develop preparedness and response capabilities, including a global platform capable of delivering vaccines, diagnostics, medicines and supplies “moving rapidly and equitably around the world – from one market model to another to supply public goods around the world”. . The panel says the facility should be willing to pay $ 100,000 million in the event of another pandemic.
According to the review, WHO mandate and funding need to be strengthened. It would mean an increase in the fees paid by Member States; “Depoliticize recruitment (especially at senior levels) by fulfilling merit criteria and relevant competencies”; improving the performance of its committee (the jury says it did not function as an executive body in the pandemic) and appointing a CEO for a single seven-year term, rather than the current five-year renewable term.
Panel members are in talks with heads of government to ensure that measures are put in place. “The shelves of storage facilities in the UN and state capitals are full of reports and reviews on previous health crises,” Sirleaf said. “Given their warnings, we would avoid the catastrophe we have today. This time it must be different. “
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