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The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that, despite the severity of the Covid-19 crisis, which caused more than 1.7 million deaths, we must prepare for other even “worse” pandemics.
(Read: The challenges left by the covid for Latin America in 2021)
“It is only an alarm signal,” warned Michael Ryan, WHO Emergency Director, at the last press conference of the year for this UN agency. “This pandemic has been very hard. It circulated around the world very quickly and affected every corner of the planet, but it has not necessarily been the worst,” warned Ryan, who throughout his career faced other even more deadly diseases .
(Read: New strain of the virus spreads, while Europe begins vaccination)
The coronavirus “is very easily transmitted and kills people,” but “its mortality levels are relatively low compared to other emerging diseases,” Ryan recalled, what to do “that we prepare in the future for something that is even worse” .
His partner and adviser to the WHO, Bruce Aylward, supported this same thesis by stating that despite scientific progress in the fight against covid-19, with the creation of vaccines in record time, humanity is very unprepared for the threat of future pandemics.
“We are in the second and third wave of the virus and we are not yet able to control it,” Aylward lamented during the press conference. “Although we are better prepared, we are still not enough for the current pandemic, and even less for the future ones,” he added.
AFP
