World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned again yesterday that COVID-19 pandemic will not be the world’s last. “This will not be the last pandemic. History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready — more ready than it was this time,” the Director-General said at a briefing on Sept. 7. “In recent years, many countries have made enormous advances in medicine, but too many have neglected their basic public health systems, which are the foundation for responding to infectious disease outbreaks.”
He further said that the COVID-19 pandemic is “teaching all of us many lessons. One of them is that health is not a luxury item for those who can afford it; it’s a necessity, and a human right.”
Because “public health is the foundation of social, economic and political stability,” states must invest in “preventing, detecting and responding to disease,” he continued. He called on all states to “invest in public health, and especially in primary health care.”
