Covid-19: ‘Mass gatherings, virulent variants create perfect storm for virus to spread'

Source(s): Times of India, the

By Pradeep Thakur

Head of the UN office for disaster risk reduction Mami Mizutori tells Pradeep Thakur Covax is making progress towards having 2 billion doses available by the end of 2021, which should be enough to protect high-risk and vulnerable people. Excerpts from the interview:

[...]

The second wave of Covid-19 has caused more deaths in India. Where did it go wrong?

Covid-19 demonstrates the systemic nature of disaster risk, how a biological hazard can ravage all areas of life starting from public health to all socio-economic aspects of our societies. Unfortunately, many countries, including India, are learning the hard way that prevention requires more patience than previously thought and, in the case of biological hazards, a longer game plan. WHO has warned that when there are mass gatherings, more contagious variants and the vaccination coverage is still low, this can create a perfect storm for the virus to spread in any country. India has done an admirable job in harnessing technology and communication to ensure effective early warning leads to early action in the case of cyclones. The challenge for the government now is to communicate effectively on the continued needs for face masks, social distancing and avoiding mass gatherings while at the same time rolling out an effective vaccination programme.

Your idea of a ‘global response for future pandemics’ and vaccine distribution?

If the global level of preparedness for this pandemic had matched the warnings, much of the impact could have been reduced. An adequate level of pandemic preparedness would have cost billions instead of the trillions that it is now costing. The loss of life and the economic disruption could have been significantly reduced if we had been adequately prepared from the moment biological hazards were included in the Sendai Framework in 2015. Given the transboundary nature of biological hazards it is obvious that a global response plan is required for future pandemics. A patchwork response is not working for Covid-19, and it will not work against any newly emerging diseases and viruses in the future. It is not acceptable that developing countries should have to wait so long for vaccines. This inequality and lack of solidarity to access affordable vaccines only fuels the spread of the virus, allows the emergence of new variants and prolongs the pandemic. None of us is safe until we are all safe.

[...]

Explore further

Country and region India
Share this

Please note: Content is displayed as last posted by a PreventionWeb community member or editor. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of UNDRR, PreventionWeb, or its sponsors. See our terms of use

Is this page useful?

Yes No Report an issue on this page

Thank you. If you have 2 minutes, we would benefit from additional feedback (link opens in a new window).