translated from Spanish: WHO: “We are facing the very real threat of a blistering pandemic”

“The specter of a global health emergency looms dangerously on the horizon,” that phrase makes that phrase more than clear the situation we find ourselves in, and it doesn’t come from a video of conspiracies on Youtube or a network on Whatsapp, it’s part – nothing more and nothing less – than a report commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.The report further says that, in recent decades, the risk in the generation of infections has increased, analysis supported in the study of pandemics that have occurred in the past and the way in which these crises were dealed. In that vein it states that “If it is true the saying that ‘the past is the prologue of the future’, we face a very real threat from a very deadly, fulminant pandemic.” Factors such as connectivity and today’s globalization would mean that – as an example of the potential risks we face – a respiratory pathogen could kill between 50 and 80 million people, “liquidating nearly 5% of the world economy.” They further add that “A global pandemic of this scale would be a catastrophe and trigger widespread chaos, instability and insecurity,” in the face of categorical affirming that “The world is unprepared.” The brutal report was drafted by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a panel of experts, politicians, heads of agencies and leaders of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, convened by WHO and the World Bank.This first JVMP document had an end to diagnosing the current risk situation globally and its ability to deal with a consequent pandemic crisis. In that sense, they analyzed in detail what happened with 2009 H1N1 influenza, in which between 150,000 and 570,000 people died globally during the first year the virus circulated, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Tuo The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Africa, which as of January 2016, had caused 11,315 deaths, was also revised. It was noted during the report that many of the learnings and recommendations that emerged from these crises “were poorly implemented or not implemented at all” at the global level, which has led to “a cycle of panic and abandonment”. They regret in that sense that we do not transcend a purely reactive logic, since “Let us make efforts when a serious threat arises and we quickly forget when the threat subsides”. They further add that “Poverty and fragility exacerbate infectious disease outbreaks and help create the conditions for pandemics,” said Reuters Axel van Trotsenburg, interim executive director of the World Bank and a panel member. To mitigate these risks of an eventual crisis, the panel suggested “urgent measures” to be taken at the global level. Such as: -That governments invest resources in preparing for the possible arrival of these outbreaks-The development of drills-The creation of vaccines and innovative treatments-Redouble efforts to prepare economic risk assessments strengthen mechanisms of collaboration and international coordination.” The time has come to act,” they said from the panel.

Original source in Spanish