Next health crisis looms within decade

Venice - The world must invest much more to avoid a repeat of the coronavirus pandemic, experts convened by the G20 said Friday as they warned the next health crisis could come within a decade."The world is far from equipped to prevent or stop the next pandemic," the High-Level Independent Panel said in a report presented at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Venice, Italy.It said even as Covid-19 rages, "there is every likelihood that the next pandemic will come within a decade - arising from a novel influenza strain, another coronavirus, or one of several other dangerous pathogens"."Its impact on human health and the global economy could be even more profound than that of Covid-19," it said.Covid-19 is probably only a forerunner of increasingly dangerous pandemics in the future and governments need to find US$75 billion over the next 5 years to prepare for them, a panel recommended.It said the US$15 billion per year of investments it recommended doubled current spending levels but was "negligible" compared with the costs of another major outbreak of a new contagious illness."The economic case for these additional investments is overwhelming," said former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, who co-chaired the 23-member panel along with World Trade Organisation chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Singapore's former finance minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.Summers told Reuters in an interview he was "guardedly optimistic" its recommendations would be implemented and said "we won't be reluctant to speak out" if they are not."Spending tens of billions of dollars could save tens of trillions," he said.KEY AREASTo plug "major gaps" in pandemic preparedness, the panel identified four main areas for action: infectious disease surveillance, resilience of national health systems, supply and delivery of vaccines and other medicines, and global governance.The report, titled "Global deal for a pandemic age", called for the creation of a US$10 billion annual Global Health Threats Fund, plus US$5 billion to strengthen the World Health Organisation and create dedicated pandemic facilities at the World Bank and multilateral development banks.In addition, low and middle-income income countries would need to add about 1% of gross domestic product to public spending on health over the next five years, it said."Achieving safety from pandemics will require a basic shift in thinking about international cooperation," said Shanmugaratnam. "It is the ultimate case for both national self-interest and international solidarity at the same time."The G20, chaired this year by Italy, will consider its recommendations in the lead up to a joint finance and health ministers' meeting in October. – Nampa/Reuters/AFP

Next health crisis looms within decade

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