New Delhi: World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the COVID-19 crisis will not be the last pandemic and all steps taken to improve human health are “doomed” if the global community fails to tackle climate change and animal welfare.
“History tells us that this will not be the last pandemic, and epidemics are a fact of life… The pandemic has highlighted the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and planet… Any efforts to improve human health are doomed unless they address the critical interface between humans and animals, and the existential threat of climate change that’s making our earth less habitable,” the WHO chief said in a video message on the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness on Sunday.
He said that people are following “dangerously short-sighted” method of using money to control outbreaks but are not doing anything to prepare for the next one.
The WHO chief stressed that people must learn the lessons from the coronavirus pandemic.
“For too long, the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect… We throw money at an outbreak, and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted, and frankly difficult to understand,” he added.
He also said, “In the past 12 months, our world has been turned upside-down. The impacts of the pandemic go far beyond the disease itself, with far-reaching consequences for societies and economies.”
