A 13-member expert panel recently tried to explain why the coronavirus pandemic happened and how the world fell into a mess with its reaction to COVID-19.
The group — called the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response — looked at “how early-warning systems failed and agencies faltered, giving the virus time to spread from the central Chinese heartland to the rest of the world, humbling empires and killing millions as it went,” according to The Washington Post.
In total, the group found:
- The rules on threats aren’t set up to help with the response.
- The World Health Organization could have acted faster to help the world stay safe from the coronavirus.
- Many governments across the world ignored warnings that led to some horrifying results with deaths and millions of COVID-19 cases.
Overall, the panel of experts said that the system failed the world.
- “The current system failed to protect us from the COVID-19 pandemic. And if we do not act to change it now, it will not protect us from the next pandemic threat,” said panel co-chair Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is the former president of Liberia, according to The Hill. “The shelves of storage rooms in the U.N. and national capitals are full of reports and reviews of previous health crises. Had their warnings been heeded, we would have avoided the catastrophe we are in today. This time must be different.”
The group called for the world to create a global council that could prevent and respond to health threats to help make sure COVID-19 is “the last pandemic,” according to the South China Morning Post.