The year 2022 has started with a heightened pandemic challenge as the Omicron variant spreads like wildfire, skyrocketing COVID infections.
The fact that the new variant, discovered last year in South Africa, has spread at an alarming pace in the United States, Europe, and many countries across the globe.
In the United States, a record half a million cases have been recorded in a single day.
The super-spreading virus variant is highly transmissible, more than Delta, an NPR report says, citing scientists,
What does it mean after a year, when vaccines raised hopes and anti-COVID pills were approved for use in the last weeks of the year. According to experts it simply indicates the challenge of controlling infectious diseases.
Marking the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, the UN acknowledged the enormous challenge.
“It also revealed our failure to learn the lessons of recent health emergencies like SARS, avian influenza, Zika, Ebola, and others”, Secretary-General António Guterres said.
“An outbreak anywhere is a potential pandemic everywhere.”
In the globalized world, Guterres’ words serve as a caution, especially for the rich countries. No country could be immune to pandemics of infectious diseases. The localized outbreaks can easily spill across borders, therefore posing new impediments to economic recovery and return to normal life.
In the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top White House medical adviser, has called for boosting vaccine immunity.
But not all countries in the world have access to enough vaccines to administer their people. That means the threat of highly infectious viruses will continue to hang out there.
In practical terms, this means that each vulnerable of the world needs to be capable of making more investments in monitoring, early detection, and rapid response plans to virus outbreaks, as emphasized by the UN.
“It means strengthening primary health care at the local level to prevent collapse… ensuring equitable access to lifesaving interventions, like vaccines for all people and…achieving Universal Health Coverage.” the Secretary-General says.
In this regard, the World Health Assembly (WHA) – the UN agency WHO’s top decision-making body – decided to develop a new global accord on pandemic prevention and response.
But stopping “infectious diseases in their tracks” requires the availability of vaccines to the extent that it addresses the gross inequality among the haves and have-nots.
As of now, 70 percent of COVID vaccines have been distributed to the world’s ten largest economies, and the poorest countries have received just 0.8 percent.
The World Health Organization calls this disparity “not only unjust” but also a threat to the entire planet.
The global health agency recommends that at least 70 percent of the population in every country must be inoculated by mid-2022.
While the availability of vaccines may provide a defense against coronavirus and its variants it by no means is a guarantee that it would forestall the possibility of new pandemic outbreaks.
While the rich countries should shoulder the responsibility of vaccine supplies, the developing and the least developed countries would have to up their guard against diseases. The best offense for this kind of defense, scientists say, is in improving and universalizing healthcare. No shortcuts here. The 2022 and the years to come will continue to test humanity even after the corona pandemic ends this year until all countries are prepared adequately to take on infectious diseases.
