REPORT FINDS COVID-19 PANDEMIC WAS PREVENTABLE; CITES SERIOUS FAILURES

An independent report has found that the COVID-19 pandemic was preventable, as it pointed to a myriad of failures, gaps and delays in preparedness and response. The panel, which was set up by the World Health Organisation, WHO, was entitled, COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic. It found that the WHO should have declared a global emergency earlier than it did and, without urgent change, the world is vulnerable to another disease outbreak.

The panel also found that the United States and Europe wasted the entire month of February 2020 and acted only when their hospitals began to fill up. The report also called the pandemic the 21st Century’s “Chernobyl moment.” The viral infection has so far infected at least 159 million people globally and killed an estimated 3.3 million.