The question in everyone's mind is, would we have mitigated the spread of and devastation caused by the Coronavirus? Or, was it an unprecedented calamity that caught everyone by surprise?
When an inquiry into the US government’s – and many government's response to coronavirus is completed, it might conclude that early signs of a potential hazardous public health crisis looming were made possible long before the pandemic occurred.
Research shows that many governments were made aware of the looming global pandemic and understood the dangers it posed to the human race (source) but none undertook preventive measures to curb its spread or set up frameworks to face its effects.
In 2015, in an interview with Bill Gates, Ezra Klein concluded that a new flu strain was the most predictable calamity capable of distracting our globalized world (source).
Three years later before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, the then outgoing homeland security advisor notified the incoming government about the effects of a pandemic threat to the US national security (source).
In 2018, during the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed between fifty and one hundred million lives, world governments were again reminded about the repercussions of such a pandemic.
In 2019, after its annual global threat assessment, the US intelligence community detailed the grave threats that a new influenza pandemic would have on global economic, social, and political spheres.
In 2019, The World Health Organization (WHO) warned countries to prepare for a global flu pandemic by stating that there was a real and ongoing risk of a new strain transmission from animals to humans.
Was The Coronavirus Pandemic An Unprecedented Event?
Clearly, the drums of a looming global pandemic started beating long before the outbreak of the coronavirus. When reports from the National Commission on Covid-19 response in the US and other countries globally materialize, it might come to a conclusion that national and global systems were blinking red.
Governments were not sufficiently prepared to handle the threats of a global pandemic. In fact, many negligently ignored the threats while others treated preparedness for the same with minimal seriousness.
From the above deductions, it is clear that prior research findings of a looming pandemic and the effects it would have existed. Many systems within global organizations and governments warned of the dangers of a flu pandemic.
However successive administrations did not treat pandemic preparedness with the degree of seriousness required. Stakeholders rushed to prioritize health security after the crisis strikes.
Pandemics do not take place with similar frequencies like other security threats such as terrorism and hence succumb to a complacent state when the threat subsides. The government’s funding towards pandemic preparedness remains insignificant compared to other national-security priorities.
For example, in the US, over $100 billion is spent on counterterrorism efforts annually compared to $1 billion for pandemic and infectious disease programs – although they kill more Americans than terrorism (source).
Moreover, essential national institutions like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and global institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO) remain underfunded and understaffed.
However, the most disappointing fact is the ignorance depicted by global organizations, governments, and institutions when pandemic threats are presented by research reports. It is very likely that many governments would have mitigated the spread of the coronavirus and its culminating devastations if the right preparedness actions were undertaken early enough.
Concisely, world governments knew the looming threat of the pandemic but ignorantly and negligently overlooked it. Many failed to take preventive measures to curb the spread while others undermined the pandemic’s threat when it struck.
References
Brown, J. (2021, May 2). The Coronavirus Is No 1918 Pandemic. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/were-not-facing-second-spanish-flu/607354/
Coats, D. (2019). Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community. Washington DC: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Friedman, U. (2021, May 2). We Were Warned. Retrieved from www.theatlantic.com: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/pandemic-coronavirus-united-states-trump-cdc/608215/
Klein, E. (2021, May 2). The most predictable disaster in the history of the human race. Retrieved from www.vox.com: https://www.vox.com/2015/5/27/8660249/bill-gates-spanish-flu-pandemic
Monaco, L. (2021, May 2). Pandemic Disease Is a Threat to National Security. Retrieved from www.foreignaffairs.com: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-03-03/pandemic-disease-threat-national-security
Vogel, L. (2019). World must prepare for inevitable flu pandemic, says WHO. World Health Organization .