Taking Proven Measures Now to Mitigate COVID-19 Pandemic

The Report considers whether the international system acted fast enough to detect and alert the world to this novel infectious pathogen with pandemic potential. “When there is a potential health threat, countries and the World Health Organization must further use the 21^st century digital tools at their disposal to keep pace with news that spreads instantly on social media and infectious pathogens that spread rapidly through travel,” says Co-Chair Clark.  

“Detection and alert may have been speedy by the standards of earlier novel pathogens, but viruses move in minutes and hours, rather than in days and weeks.” There is a need for a new international framework.

The Co-Chairs appreciate that at the time, many people worked hard to identify the health threat, and took measures to address it. Identifying the timing gaps is a lesson for future response preparedness, not a critique of those who did their best.

The Panel is also concerned that even when WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January – the loudest alarm possible under the International Health Regulations – many countries took minimal action to prevent the spread internally and internationally.  The Panel is examining this further including by analysing the chronology of actions of countries and by WHO, in relation to the spread of the virus and the emergence of new evidence.

In its Progress Report, the Panel also describes additional early shortcomings at each step of the global and national response to COVID-19 which have contributed to the pandemic. These include a failure to measure preparedness in a way that predicted actual performance, and a failure of countries to prepare, despite years of warnings of the inevitability of a health threat with pandemic potential.

Crippling, Deepening Inequalities
The Panel finds that the pandemic response has deepened inequalities, both within and between countries. Low-income countries are bearing long lasting economic burdens of the pandemic. The inequitable access to vaccines is amongst the most glaring examples of inequality exacerbated by the pandemic.

The Panel will further examine and recommend ways in which pandemic preparedness and response systems can be improved so that countries have equitable access to protective equipment, supplies such as oxygen and ventilators, and diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines.

High Expectations of WHO Need to Be Backed by Support for It
The Panel is also concerned that Member States have high expectations of the World Health Organization but have left it underpowered to do that job.

“The WHO is expected to validate reports of disease outbreaks for their pandemic potential and, deploy support and containment resources, but its powers and funding to carry out its functions are limited,” says Co-Chair Sirleaf. “This is a question of resources, tools, access, and authority.” 

To this end the Panel is concerned that the incentives for Member States to cooperate with WHO are too weak to ensure their effective engagement with the international system in an effective, transparent, accountable, and timely manner.

A New Global Framework, Real Investment Needed
In the lead up to its report to the World Health Assembly in May, the Independent Panel will continue to gather information and analyse what happened during the early weeks and months of the spread of SARS-CoV2, as well as examining the wider social and economic impacts, and the implications for the international system. 

The Panel’s report underscores that lessons from this pandemic are both painful and grave and must be a catalyst for “fundamental and systemic change in preparedness for future such events, from the local community right through to the highest National and global levels. There needs to be a fundamental shift so that pandemic preparedness is recognized as an obligatory investment not as a voluntary cost.”

“The consequences of this pandemic remind us of how important effective multilateralism is,” says Co-Chair Sirleaf.

“Geopolitical tensions have impacted on the response, and the resulting pandemic has given us many interlinked reasons to rethink and reset the way in which the international system and countries prepare and respond to global health threats. With 7.6 billion lives interrupted, a regression on previous gains towards the Sustainable Development Goals; the loss of trust in governments and institutions; and a loss of some six trillion dollars in GDP, there is every reason to change.”

“We are at a global crossroads,” the Co-Chairs said. “The Independent Panel aims to make recommendations to support the world to be more prepared, more secure, and more resilient to future pandemic threats.”

The Independent Panel’s Second Report on Progress is available in six languages at www.TheIndependentPanel.org/documents.