Despite the severe global toll of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization warns that the outbreak is “not necessarily the big one” – and urges the world to take the preparation “seriously.”
“This is a wake-up call,” Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergency services chief, said at a news conference on Monday, a year since the UN agency first heard that the new bug was spreading in China.
Since COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, it has killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide, of the more than 81 million infected. In the US, about 335,000 people have died and more than 19 million are infected.
“This pandemic has been very serious,” Ryan said, according to Agence France-Presse. “It has spread around the world extremely quickly and it has hit every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one.”
He stressed that while the virus is “highly communicable and kills people … the current death rate (rate) is fairly low compared to other emerging diseases.
“We need to prepare for something that may be even more serious in the future,” Ryan added.
Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor to WHO, also warned that while the world had made tremendous scientific advances, including developing vaccines at record speed, it was far from prepared to prevent future pandemics.
“We are in the second and third waves of this virus and we are still not ready to tackle and manage it,” he said. “So while we are better prepared … we are not fully prepared for this one, let alone the next.”
Meanwhile, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed hope that the pandemic has helped the world better prepare for future threats.
“In terms of consciousness, I think we understand now,” said the director general, adding that “now was the time to get really serious.”
He also mentioned the two new strains of virus that have emerged in the UK and South Africa that appear to be more contagious than the others.
“We are working with scientists in the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies that will guide the next steps,” he said.