According to a recent Lancet COVID-19 Commission report, it is said that widespread, global failures at all levels in the COVID-19 response resulted in millions of avoidable deaths and halted progress achieved towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many countries.
The Commission evaluates the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic's first two years critically, pointing out widespread shortcomings in prevention, openness, reason, fundamental public health principles, operational cooperation, and international solidarity that led to an estimated 17.7 million deaths.
The report also reveals that most national governments were unprepared, took too long to respond, gave the most vulnerable members of their society too little consideration, and struggled due to a lack of international coordination and a misinformation scourge.
To outline recommendations that will help speed the conclusion of the COVID-19 emergency, decrease the impact of upcoming health hazards, and promote long-term sustainable development, the Commission drew evidence utilising innovative epidemiological and financial studies.
The report cautions that attaining these objectives depends on a strengthened multilateralism that must be centred around a reformed and strengthened World Health Organization (WHO), as well as investments and refined planning for national pandemic preparedness and health system strengthening, with a focus on populations experiencing vulnerability.
Enhanced technology and knowledge transfers for health commodities as well as improved international health finance for resource-constrained countries and areas are also crucial investments.
The Commission is the result of two years of work by 28 of the top experts in the world in public policy, global governance, epidemiology, vaccine development, economics, international finance, sustainability, and mental health, as well as consultations with more than 100 other participants in 11 international task forces.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University in the US said, "the tremendous human toll of the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic is a terrible tragedy and a massive societal failure on many different levels." Too many governments have disregarded fundamental standards of institutional rationality and transparency, too many people have objected to basic public health precautions, frequently under the influence of false information, and too many countries have failed to encourage international cooperation to control the pandemic, according to Sachs. "We must face hard truths," he said.
The report recommended immediate collaborative effort to advance public health and sustainable development in order to put an end to the pandemic.
It also highlights the necessity of addressing global health disparities, defending the planet from pandemics in the future, tracing the origins of this pandemic, and strengthening communities all around the world.
A resilient and lasting recovery, Sachs said, "depends on enhanced multilateral collaboration, financing, biosafety, and international solidarity with the most vulnerable countries and people. We have the scientific capability and economic means to do this.
The report noted that national governments' failure to cooperate and coordinate on travel policies, testing strategies, commodity supply chains, data reporting systems, and other crucial international policies to suppress the pandemic coincided with costly delays by WHO to declare a "public health emergency of international concern" and to acknowledge the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
It was claimed that there have been severe costs associated with governments' lack of cooperation in regards to the financing and distribution of essential health commodities, such as vaccines, personal protective equipment, and resources for the development and production of vaccines in low-income countries.
The report noted that the significant public opposition to routine public health measures seen in many countries was exacerbated by extensive misinformation campaigns on social media, low social trust, and a failure to use the behavioural and social sciences to encourage behaviour change and counter this opposition.
The 2030 SDG agenda is in jeopardy due to the worsening of socioeconomic inequality, as well as economic and public health setbacks and rising social and political tensions, according to the report's authors.
For pandemic response and readiness, they stated, two distinct timetables have been established: immediate efforts to end the COVID-19 emergency in the short term, and longer-term policy suggestions for a new age of global collaboration to promote long-term sustainable development.
The Commission suggests that all nations implement a vaccination-plus policy, which combines mass vaccination with the proper public health safeguards and financial measures, to contain the pandemic.
According to Salim S. Abdool Karim, a co-author on the Commission from Columbia University in the US, "a global vaccine-plus strategy will slow the emergence of new variants and reduce the risk of new waves of infection while allowing everyone (including those clinically vulnerable) to go about their lives more freely."
"The better the possibilities for exiting the pandemic emergency and achieving long-lasting economic recovery, the sooner the world can move to vaccinate everyone and provide social and economic support," Karim added.
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