Though the timing and details of the COVID-19 pandemic caught govern
hough the timing and details of the COVID-19 pandemic caught govern
ments around the world by surprise, the possibility of a new pathogen
emerging to cause a deadly pandemic had been long understood by experts
in public health preparedness. Even in the months prior to the outbreak of the
coronavirus in February 2020, several expert groups warned governments about the
potential imminent threat of pandemics and urged them to bolster their prepared
potential imminent threat of pandemics and urged them to bolster their prepared
ness for such events. The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (2019), a high-level
independent group of national and global health leaders published a report called
World at Risk, in which it concluded that it was “well past time to act” to reduce global
vulnerabilities to pandemics and other health emergencies (Global Preparedness
Monitoring Board 2019). The Global Health Security (GHS) Index—a framework
that measures the readiness of 195 countries for pandemics and other significant
biological threat emergencies—determined that “no country was fully prepared” for
a potential pandemic (Cameron, Nuzzo, and Bell 2019). Months later, these conclu
a potential pandemic (Cameron, Nuzzo, and Bell 2019). Months later, these conclu
sions became self-evident with the emergence and rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2
virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
ፍትህ ለሁሉም / Justice for All