An international task force has been working for years to predict and prevent the outbreak of a global pandemic. But for Covid-19 it has done nothing. With the spread of Ebola in 2014, the Global Health Security Agenda (Ghsa) in charge of which Italy was until 2019. But without obtaining results.

Coronavirus, alarms ignored: the role of Ghsa

An investigation by Fatto Quotidiano would reveal the anti-epidemic protocols also developed thanks to the work of a health coalition of 30 countries, which remained in the drawer despite the fact that the emergency was expected at any moment.

For five years since the creation of the Ghsa, the progress of the work of the different teams within the organization has been entrusted to the Italian Ministry of Health, with Beatrice Lorenzin. During his tenure, however, the international platform does not have the necessary resources and attention.

In 2017, a team of Sino-American researchers published the latest in a series of studies predicting a likely return of coronaviruses present in bats, after SARS in 2002.

Coronavirus, Ignored Alarms: ECDC Reminders

The same year the European Center for Disease Control (Ecdc) informs Italy that our country’s pandemic plans have not been updated as strictly recommended by WHO at the time of swine flu (H1n1) and that, therefore, they remained unchanged before 2009.

The ECDC check shows that almost all European plans lack adequate measures to protect the most vulnerable people, cas elderly and immunosuppressed, and ensure coordination between countries. Two critical factors that will emerge strongly in the phases of the pandemic.

According to the 2013 EU legislation on cross-border health risks, in recent years Member States should have communicated changes to their plans every three years, also making ordinary shares of medicines and personal protective equipment for any epidemic hazard. All indications fell on deaf ears.

Coronavirus, the alarms ignored: the gaps in the Italian plan

In particular, both the evaluation of the EU agency responsible for public health and the opinion of the WHO, il Italian plan It will not have a rapid information system between health authorities, doctors and nurses, a methodology to quickly know the first cases of contagion and the ability to perform laboratory tests and assist patients in overload situations.

However, the Italian plan does not appear to have been updated. An update is reported from the website of the Ministry of Health in December 2016, but it would seem the same as in 2010. There is no certainty even if this version of the anti-epidemic protocol was activated or not during the coronavirus emergency, as it would have requested . the ECDC.

Finally, a joint investigation by the ECDC and the WHO carried out in our country between the end of February and the beginning of March would have revealed non-compliance with the standard for local data collection and its disorderly communication at the central level. A gap that according to international public health organizations “has made it difficult draw a clear pictureor on the transmission chains and the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the cases, weakening the capacity to assess the level of risk in the country ”.