Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also condemns the “dangerously myopic” cycle of spending money without counting when an epidemic flares up but doing nothing to prepare for the next one, in a video message marking Sunday, the first International Day to prepare for epidemics.
The WHO director-general said it was time to learn lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said.
“We throw money at one outbreak and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.
The first annual report of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board of September 2019 on the state of the planet’s preparedness for health emergencies, released a few months before the appearance of the new coronavirus, underlined that the planet was terribly ill-prepared for potentially devastating pandemics .
“History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic and epidemics are a fact of life,” Ghebreyesus said in his post. “The pandemic has highlighted the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” he added.
For the former Ethiopian Minister of Health, the coronavirus crisis should not have come as a surprise, given the repeated warnings.
According to him, all countries should invest in preparedness capacities to avoid, detect and mitigate emergencies of all kinds, which is why he calls for a strengthening of the supply of care.
The boss of the WHO believes that with investments in public health, “we can ensure that our children and their children inherit a safer, more resilient and more sustainable world.”
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