At midday on Wednesday, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response released a comprehensive set of fact-based reports into the global response to Covid-19.
The Panel was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General in response to a World Health Assembly resolution in 2020 calling for an independent, impartial, and comprehensive review of experiences gained and lessons to be learned from the current pandemic. The review was also asked to provide recommendations to improve capacity for global pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
The Panel is made up of 13 members, whose levels of expertise and experience are enormous. It includes activists, economists, epidemiologists and people with experience at the highest levels of government and working in Health systems. To South Africa’s credit former director-general of the Health Department Malebona Precious Matsoso was one of those appointed.
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World could have prevented Covid catastrophe: expert panel
Issued on:
12/05/2021 - 12:09 The virus first emerged in China in late 2019 before sweeping the world STR AFP 4 min
Geneva (AFP)
The catastrophic scale of the Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented, an independent global panel concluded Wednesday, but a toxic cocktail of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded.
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) said a series of bad decisions meant Covid-19 went on to kill at least 3.3 million people so far and devastate the global economy.
Institutions failed to protect people and science-denying leaders eroded public trust in health interventions, the IPPPR said in its long-awaited final report.
New COVID-19 variant drives infections in India
Worldwide
The WHO said on Wednesday that the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus has now been detected in 44 countries in all six WHO regions. The UN health agency based its findings on 4,500 samples uploaded on an open-access database.
The variant, which is known as B.1.617, is believed to be one of several factors behind the massive outbreak in infections across India. Outside of India, the UK has reported the highest number of COVID cases caused by the Indian variant.
World leaders, and the World Health Organization, could have done more to lessen the deadly effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report issued at the request of the WHO by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.