International health leaders have learned nothing from COVID failures
By Daniel Nuccio
January 29, 2024 8:36 am
What are you doing to prepare for Disease X? If you are like most people, probably nothing. This is likely the first you are hearing of Disease X. However, if you spent mid-January in Davos, your answer may have included improving healthcare infrastructure, investing in vaccines, and promoting a pandemic treaty that may or may not threaten state sovereignty around the globe.
Yes, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting this year, Disease X, which is the place-holding name for any undiscovered pathogen with pandemic potential, was on the agenda, and our global ruling class made it clear they are planning ahead.
On Jan. 17, Nancy Brown, the CEO of the American Heart Association, led a panel discussion that included World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Brazil’s minister of health, and representatives from AstraZeneca, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, and Royal Philips.
“The goal of [the] discussion,” Brown said, was to “talk about what can we and should we be doing to make sure our health systems are prepared for any future crisis that might come along that requires global collaboration and participation and how can we be sure that we learn from the past to strengthen systems for the future.”
Some of the ideas put forth in the discussion were pretty reasonable. New diseases happen. Pandemics are real. We should be prepared.
Ghebreyesus highlighted the need to ensure hospitals can expand space and increase personnel quickly in the event of a massive surge in Disease X patients. Roy Ja
