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Covid-19 ‘thrives on division’ so countries must unite in fight, plug gaps in healthcare systems: WHO chief

SINGAPORE — The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (Sept 17) called on the world to unite to defeat Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 and one that he said “thrives on division”.

Laboratory workers checking samples collected for Covid-19 coronavirus testing as part of a large-scale project to test low-income households in India.

Laboratory workers checking samples collected for Covid-19 coronavirus testing as part of a large-scale project to test low-income households in India.

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  • WHO’s chief said Covid-19 can be defeated when everyone does his or her part in the fight
  • Governments must plug the gaps in their national health systems to prepare for a future pandemic
  • He pointed out that nations do not need to wait for a vaccine to control the spread of Covid-19
  • He laid out four essential priorities that countries should focus on in battling the disease

 

SINGAPORE — The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (Sept 17) called on the world to unite to defeat Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 and one that he said “thrives on division”. 

Urging all nations to commit to national unity and global solidarity in the fight against Covid-19, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reinforced the point that every individual has a part to play in keeping each other and themselves safe from the pandemic.

“For everything Covid-19 has taken from us, it has also given us something — a reminder of what really matters and the opportunity to forge a common future,” he said.

Dr Tedros was speaking at the final instalment of a webinar series titled Covid-19: Updates from Singapore, which was jointly organised by WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National University Health System.

Noting that the ongoing pandemic will not be the last to grip countries around the world, Dr Tedros emphasised the need for countries to plug the gaps in their national health systems in order to be ready for the next disease outbreak.

“It has never been clearer that health is a political and economic choice,” he said.  

“Countries have invested heavily in preparing for terrorist attacks, but relatively little in preparing for the attack of a virus that, as the pandemic has proven, can be far more deadly, disruptive and costly.”

Therefore, part of each nation’s commitment to “build back better” has to include investing in public health to ensure a healthier, safer and more sustainable future, he said.

FIGHTING COVID-19 WITH EXISTING TOOLS

The race towards the first effective and safe Covid-19 vaccine candidate is on the way, but Dr Tedros made the point that countries need not wait for a vaccine to control the infectious disease.

“We must work with the tools we have,” he said, as he laid out four essential priorities that countries should focus on at this time.

  1. Governments should prevent “amplifying events” — superspreading events that could lead to explosive outbreaks, such as those that have been linked to gatherings at stadiums, nightclubs, places of worship and other crowds

  2. Countries must also prioritise protecting the vulnerable to save lives so as to reduce the burden that severely and critically ill patients could have on the healthcare systems

  3. Governments must educate and empower communities to protect themselves and others by practising basic protocols such as physical distancing, hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and mask-wearing

  4. Public health officials should continue with the following basics: Find, isolate, test and care for cases and quarantine their contacts

“There are already many examples of countries that have effectively prevented or controlled their outbreaks by doing these four things, and doing them well,” Dr Tedros said, listing examples of countries such as Iceland, Mongolia, New Zealand, Senegal and Singapore as nations that have followed these principles successfully.

In controlling the disease spread, countries would not need to be faced with the “false choice” of deciding between prioritising health or the economy, he added.

WARNINGS IGNORED, PROMISES BROKEN

Joining Dr Tedros at the webinar session were 15 other renowned health experts who gave their perspectives on the present and future state of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

They echoed his comments that this global health crisis has revealed the gaps in public healthcare systems around the world, especially with regard to preparing and responding to a disease outbreak.

Dr Margaret Hamburg, the former commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic is tragic for so many reasons, but in part because it was predictable.”

Dr Hamburg, who is also the foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine in the US, added that experts have been sounding the alarm for decades, but these warnings have been ignored and promises to prepare for such pandemics have been broken.

“If Covid-19 is not the lasting lesson that we need to properly invest in infectious disease and pandemic preparedness… then I don’t know what can possibly be,” she said.

“(This) wake up call will not allow us to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.”

SPREADING MISINFORMATION

The experts also highlighted the struggle that many nations have had with misinformation about the disease.

Professor Chong Yap Seng, dean of NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, said: “Pandemics unleash a torrent of misinformation and conspiracy theories, resulting in confusion, panic and uncertainty.

“This raises the spectre of racism and intolerance, stoking fear and stigmatising certain ethnic groups or immigrant populations.”

Professor Trish Perl, chief of the infectious diseases and geographic medicine division at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, said that this is why as the war against the pandemic rages on, it is imperative that governments are committed to ensuring that decisions are made scientifically, and misinformation is fought off.

This is especially important as the effective vaccine candidates come forward, she added.

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