EditorialLessons of Covid-19 must be heard to stop the same mistakes

The failings of the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic are evident in the high numbers of infections and deaths, the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression in the 1930s and disruption to industry and travel. Even as vaccine roll-outs gather pace, there is no certainty that the crisis can be brought under control, with many governments still struggling and new strains of the virus emerging.

Lessons need to be quickly learned to prepare for and prevent the next such disaster, which is not a matter of if but when. Helen Clark, the co-head of an international investigative panel, is right to call for a strengthening of monitoring and response systems, with science at the fore and politics swept aside.

Clark, a one-time head of the United Nations Development Programme and former prime minister and health minister of New Zealand, recently said obvious gaps in reporting the outbreak of the virus from when it was first noticed in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of December 2019 until the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international emergency on January 30 last year, highlighted the shortcomings.

China enacted lockdowns and tough measures to curb the spread of what became known as Covid-19, but many other governments were slow to respond. It was bound to lead to disaster; as Clark and scientists have said, no day can be lost when trying to stop a highly infectious disease of which little is known.

That was detailed by the interim report released last month by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which comprises 13 health experts including China’s top Covid-19 scientist, Zhong Nanshan, and former national leaders. It determined the WHO lacked the power to adequately deal with the pandemic and international alert mechanisms were outdated in an era of high-speed communications.