The United Nations has stressed the importance of developing global health systems to tackle future pandemics that the world may face.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his message on the occasion of the International Day for Preparedness for Disasters, which fell on Wednesday, called on the world to be prepared for future pandemics and to work on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guterres said that even though the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global health emergency, it is still spreading and its health effects are devastating, and its economic implications are tangible, as many health systems are struggling, while millions of children are at risk of disease after missing out on opportunities to receive routine childhood vaccinations.
He pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people, caused the deaths of millions, and caused devastating effects on humanity, noting that even though three years have passed since the development of the first vaccines against this pandemic, billions of people in developing countries are still not protected from the virus.
He warned that “when the next pandemic comes, we must face it better,” explaining that the world is not yet ready for that, and so it must prepare and draw lessons from COVID-19.
Guterres expressed his dissatisfaction with the rich countries’ monopolization and control of the supply of pandemic healthcare, and called for the need to ensure that everyone has access to diagnostic, treatment, and vaccines, and to strengthen the authority and funding of the World Health Organization.
He also called for strengthening international cooperation, including in the field of improving virus surveillance, strengthening health systems, and promoting universal health coverage plans, pointing in this regard to the strong political declaration issued by the High-Level Meeting on the Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Epidemics, which was held in September last year.
