WHO Says COVID Not The Big One; Are Experts Pointing Towards More Severe Pandemics In Future?

WHO emergencies chief, Michael Ryan, has sounded a warning saying the COVID-19 pandemic - which has killed over 17 lakh people across the world so far - is ¡°not necessarily the big one¡± and it¡¯s more of a wake-up call.

"This is a wake-up call," WHO emergencies chief, Michael Ryan, told reporters at a briefing.

reuters

World in an "era of pandemics"

"It has spread around the world extremely quickly and it has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one," said Ryan.

During an online briefing, Ryan said, ¡°This virus is very transmissible and it kills people, and it has deprived so many people of loved ones, but its current case fatality is reasonably low in comparison to other emerging diseases."

Reuters

Likewise, experts from across the world believe that future pandemics will happen more often, kill more people and wreak even worse damage to the global economy than COVID-19. In October, the United Nations biodiversity panel said the world is in an ¡°era of pandemics¡± and unless the destruction of the natural world is halted, they will emerge more often. The panel consisted of world's leading scientists and experts.

1.7 million undiscovered viruses exist

COVID-19 is at least the sixth global health pandemic since the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, and although it has its origins in microbes carried by animals, like all pandemics, its emergence has been entirely driven by human activities, says the report released late in October. It is estimated that another 1.7 million currently ¡®undiscovered¡¯ viruses exist in mammals and birds ¨C of which up to 850,000 could have the ability to infect people.

AP

Convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), for an urgent virtual workshop about the links between degradation of nature and increasing pandemic risks, the experts agree that escaping the era of pandemics is possible, but that this will require a seismic shift in approach from reaction to prevention.

"Deforestation primary driver of pandemics"

Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance and Chair of the IPBES workshop said, ¡°The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment. Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. This is the path to pandemics.¡±

Miguel Scarcello, SOS Amaz?nia.

¡°The science is not in dispute at all about this. Deforestation is a prime driver of pandemics,¡± says Lee Hannah, a climate scientist for Conservation International, who specializes in the effects of forest loss. Hannah peer-reviewed the report, which was compiled at a late July virtual workshop by the IPBES.

As recently as November 2019, scientists were sounding the alarm that increasing deforestation was creating more favorable conditions for disease outbreaks. While habitat loss writ large presents a threat, Hannah calls specific attention to forests, which have a high density of biodiversity and therefore present more opportunities for disease carriers.