COVID Still Kills One Person Every Four Minutes Globally; Long-Term Plan Needed

New York: More than three years after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, the coronavirus menace in longer a health emergency. But that doesn’t mean it’s a thing of the past.

Even now, the coronavirus disease is killing at least one person every four minutes globally.

It’s still a leading killer, the third-biggest in the US last year behind heart disease and cancer, reported Bloomberg.

According to a leading health expert, we can’t just sit idly and wish COVID to vanish from the face of earth.

“The general desire in the world is to move beyond the pandemic and put COVID behind us, but we can’t put our heads in the sand… COVID still infects and kills a lot of people. We have the means to reduce that burden,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of Clinical Epidemiology Center at the Veterans Affairs St Louis Health Care System in Missouri.

Vulnerable people who are aged, have comorbidities and those living in under-vaccinated countries are at risk.

The question remains — how to handle a virus that is less threatening to most people, but remains dangerous for a part of the population.

Much before World Health Organization declared earlier this month that COVID no longer constitutes an emergency, most governments had relaxed lockdowns and guidelines.

Countries are reluctant to pursue preventive measures and the public doesn’t have much patience either.

But the fact is, the infection that led to over 20 million deaths worldwide, continues to evolve.

Yet, there is no effort to put a global long-term plan in place.

Global politics has hampered coordination.

“We know that politicizing public health is one of the tragedies of the pandemic. Political leaders leveraged their responses not only to advance public health but to advance their own narrative and drum up support for themselves,” Al-Aly said.

Linfa Wang, a virologist and director of emerging infectious diseases programme at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, pointed out that Chinese representatives aren’t participating in many global preparation efforts now.

“It’s hindering academic collaboration, and China/US collaboration is almost zero. If these two superpowers don’t collaborate, how can we say the world is ready for the next disease?” Wang questioned.

The silver lining is that the world has vaccines and better treatments for COVID. Tests can show the infection in minutes, hence new outbreaks can be spotted quickly.

Health experts have been saying all along that immunisation is the best way to protect against the disease.

“Even if governments are tired, we have to face the reality that the virus is still evolving,” said Wang.