WHO chief says world was ‘woefully’ underprepared for COVID-19 pandemic

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on September 18 that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the lack of preparedness for a major health crisis. Addressing the regular media briefing, the WHO chief highlighted the “recurring pattern” of funds announced at the peak of virus outbreaks but those funds don’t remain available to prevent future outbreaks.

“Reviews and reports are only as good as the recommendations that are implemented. COVID-19 has shown that collectively, the world was woefully underprepared,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.

The top WHO official was joined by Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland and Elhadj As Sy, the co-chairs of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB). The board publishes an annual overview of the state of the world’s preparedness, monitoring progress, and calling for leaders to take urgent action. The annual reports are aimed at pushing key policymakers towards increased preparedness and response capacity for health emergencies.

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Preparedness report

On September 14, the GPMB released a report titled ‘A World in Disorder’, providing a harsh assessment of the global COVID-19 response. The report warned that the world cannot afford to be unprepared for the next pandemic and called for five urgent actions to be taken to bring order out of the “catastrophe and chaos currently facing the world”.

Dr Ghebreyesus said that the report lays out the key lessons the world must learn from the pandemic and the concrete actions it should take to protect itself. He said that health systems can be completely overwhelmed and essential services can break down irrespective of countries’ financial health. 

The WHO chief gave an example of the COVID-19 response of Thailand, the Southeast Asian nation which had already experienced health emergencies like SARS and H5N1. He said that the country’s experience with such outbreaks combined with a strong public health and surveillance system gave them the “muscle memory” to respond quickly to COVID-19.

“Developing ‘muscle memory’, like Thailand did from previous outbreaks, is key to pandemic response and now we need the whole world to strengthen preparedness,” he added.

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