Former New Zealand PM on COVID: It 'will happen again' if response remains 'flat-footed'

With coronavirus spreading across the globe, New Zealand’s former PM Helen Clark reportedly warned that if the world remains ‘flat-footed’ in its response to pandemics then the countries will again face an economic, social and political crisis. Clark’s warning comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) appointed her and Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to lead a panel scrutinising the global response to COVID-19 pandemic. 

While speaking to an international media outlet, the former New Zealand PM noted that this was the sixth time in 17 years that the WHO had declared a public health emergency. She reportedly warned that if the world continues to be ‘flat-footed’ in response as it has been till now then they are in for ‘serious ongoing economic, social and political crisis’. While calling her new role as a panel member an ‘exceptionally challenging’ job, she also said that the newly formed panel will be looking at how the WHO has been able to lead and if they have the ‘right mechanisms’. 

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‘Cannot be another blue-ribbon panel’ 

On July 9, the WHO announced the lead members of the panel. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reportedly even called both the women, Clark and Ellen, ‘strong-minded, independent leaders’. He added that the panel will help the UN agency in giving an ‘honest assessment’ and help the leaders understand what should be done to prevent such a tragedy in the future. 

While announcing the panel appointment, Tedros said, “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. Rather, it’s the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels”. 

Further, the WHO chief also suggested that the panel would have an independent administration, update member states regularly on its progress and hold a monthly meeting. He said that the new panel ‘cannot be another blue-ribbon panel’. He also added that the world must come together in a global conversation to take the ‘hard-won lessons’ and turn them into action. Tedros added, “My hope is that the defining crisis of our age will likewise remind all people that the best way forward and all the only way forward is together”. 

(Inputs: AP; Image: @HelenClarkNZ) 

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