Coronavirus won’t be the last pandemic - WHO

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization, WHO, director-general on Sunday, December 27, 2020, warned that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last such crisis.

“History tells us that this won’t be the last pandemic and epidemics are a fact of life,” Tedros said in a video released to mark the first-ever International Day of Epidemic Preparedness on Sunday.

The WHO head said that better investment in public health supported by governments and society could “ensure that our children and their children inherit a safer, more resilient and more sustainable world.”

Tedros said that the new coronavirus turned the world “upside-down” over the past twelve months with far-reaching consequences for societies and economies.

But the pandemic itself was not a surprise, especially since warnings of such a possibility, and of the world’s unpreparedness, had been issued many times over the years.

“We must all learn the lessons the pandemic is teaching us,” Tedros said. This includes investment in preparedness capacities not just in the health sector but rather an “all-of-government and all of society approach.”

“The pandemic has highlighted the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and planet,” which required a common approach, the WHO chief said.