The time to prevent future pandemics is now.
 | By Alexandra Sifferlin Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
An infectious disease begins to spread, often by a virus, causing substantial harm. People and politicians panic and rush to respond. The process reveals major gaps in the world's ability to combat pandemic threats quickly. Promises are made that the failures will never happen again. |
And then, as the crisis subsides, an inevitable period of neglect sets in. Funding is cut, and efforts to create sustainable safeguards fall lower and lower down the to-do list. At some point, it happens all over again. |
Among experts who respond to outbreaks this is called, not surprisingly, the cycle of panic and neglect. |
In 2014, Craig was infected with Ebola after treating patients in Guinea. Eight years later, he was an emergency room doctor treating Covid-19 patients in New York City, where, as he writes, "I'd see more people die in my hospital — one of the nation's best, in one of the wealthiest cities in the world — than I ever did while treating Ebola in West Africa." |
When I spoke to Craig over the phone recently, he lamented the ways in which the world continues to remain unprepared for pandemics, and worried that we only really have a few months left before the political will to do something long-lasting will diminish. |
"Policymakers must heed the warnings of the front line," he writes in his essay. "Being perpetually unprepared for global disease outbreaks is not the future society wants, but it's our fate if we don't lay the groundwork for the next pandemic threat." |
Craig argues for three spots where attention should be focused immediately: disease surveillance, strengthening the global health care work force and ensuring equitable access to treatments and vaccines. There are certainly others, like those outlined by former members of President Biden's Covid advisory board in a guest essay last week. |
Not everyone can be expected to be constantly vigilant for the next pandemic. But one thing we can do is listen to those on the front lines and demand their governments exercise that vigilance on their behalf. |
Read the full essay here. |
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