Covid Update: Pandemic Lessons Ignored

Have we learned any lessons from the failures and successes of the COVID pandemic? Are we any better prepared for the next infectious disease pandemic when it appears, as it surely will? A review from the United Kingdom health system identifies four areas that deserve more attention and more investment.

 

“Lessons arising from the COVID-19 pandemic are characterized by four broad themes: (i) investment in public health and health infrastructure, (ii) countermeasures (medical and non-medical), (iii) risk communication and public health measures and (iv) investment in people and partnerships.” (J Antimicrob Chemother. 2023 Nov; 78(Suppl 2): ii43–ii49.).

 

Early in the COVID pandemic, hospitals and hospital staff were overwhelmed with the number of sick patients arriving and shortages of needed supplies.Public health messaging was often garbled. The pandemic quickly became politicized by the Trump administration downplaying the seriousness of COVID and promoting quack cures. The already understaffed public health system became even less effective as officials were ignored, ridiculed, or threatened. The unmasked and unvaccinated too often paid for their political allegiance with their lives. Trust in scientists and health care professionals eroded. The interrogation of Dr. Fauci on June 4th, 2024 by Congressional Republicans shows how disconnected from reality some of our policymakers and citizens have become.

 

There were some successes. The mRNA vaccines were developed as rapidly as possible, much faster than any previous vaccine. Rapid tests for the COVID virus were developed, and there was global cooperation in sequencing the viral genome to understand virus evolution and spread. Antiviral compounds like Paxlovid were identified and were effective although underutilized. But many of the resources that made these advances possible are now shrinking or disappearing. And locally, Del Mar achieved high vaccination rates (including for our local homeless community, due to the efforts of St. Peters’ Helping Hands program).

 

The poor and those in developing countries were more likely to suffer from the COVID pandemic. Responses to any future pandemic will have to reach vulnerable populations to protect us all.

 

Are we any better prepared for the next pandemic? Not really. We have not stockpiled needed medical supplies, trained more doctors and nurses and public health professionals, improved risk communication or restored trust in medical advice. Nor have we provided the funding needed to make these preparations. Critical lessons are being ignored.