5 years, since Covid was announced a pandemic, we are still poorly prepared for the next

March 11, 2020, when Covid continued to spread all over the world, World Health Organization (Who) officially announced Pandemia.

Above 7 million people Since then, he died of Covid. The virus and means of public health adopted to control it, had a long -range impact on societies around the world.

Five years later, the virus is still circulating. But thanks to vaccines and resistance acquired from infectionHospitalizations and deaths due to Covid are much rarer than in previous years.

Meanwhile, Long Covid It still has a massive impact on people’s lives. Estimates suggest more than 400 million people He has or currently live with a long Covid.

At this point, Australia and the world must take Covid lessons – in areas from supervision, explosion reaction, to vaccines and therapeutics – to better prepare for the next Pandemia.

Some areas we went well – and bad

Our diagnostic laboratories in Australia were well prepared. Laboratories at the Doherty Institute diagnosed the first Covid case in Australia and as the first insulate and divide the virus Globally at the beginning of 2020.

At the same time, the national reaction of public health was quickly introduced. It concerned Funds such as Closing borders, configuring test centers and limiting meetings.

But there are several areas where we could mobilize ourselves more effectively.

In the early stages of Pandemia, there were sometimes challenges related to sharing data, as well as biological samples and components of Covid testing between different states and territories.

For example, there are currently restrictions that limit the division of virus strains between states and territories. But when a novel strain appears, many laboratories need access to it to assess their test capabilities.

One recommendation from Independent review 2024 From the reaction of the federal government to the Australian Disease Control Center. The transient version was released at the beginning of 2024, and the Australian government invests $ 251.7 million In this crucial initiative.

The goal of the novel Disease Control Center will be to give the government independent technical advice on infectious diseases. It will also facilitate the rapid integration of data from all states and territories leading to a more unified reaction.

At the beginning of the pandemic we must understand everything about the novel virus and at high speed. I need systems in “peace time”, ready to mobilize during the “war”.

In 2020 we had ready protocols hospitalized patients AND intensive care units Collect specimens and also start novel clinical trials. But we were not prepared on many other fronts, for example to gather samples or examine how Covid was passed in a community or in various key groups.

It counts every day at the beginning of the pandemic.

Apply of medical technologies

Relatively recent technological progress in both diagnostics (rats tests) and the development of vaccines (application Messenger RNAwhich gives our body genetic instructions to fight Covid) put us in a mighty position to be the most current in every pandemic reaction.

Moderna, one of the two companies that were a pioneer of MRNA vaccines, established The headquarters in Asia and the Pacific in Melbourne. CSL, which created Astrazeneca Covid vaccines in Australia and produces several other vaccines, has now turned on MRNA in his repertoire.

This ability means that Australians can have immediate access to MRNA vaccines for another pandemic. We can also potentially produce these vaccines for low and medium income countries in our region.

But what if we can’t create an effective vaccine to fight the future of Pandemia? This is a situation for which we must be prepared, as we have seen in the case of infections, such as HIV, where after 40 years of rehearsals and billions of dollars spent, We still don’t have a vaccine.

In this situation, we will have to rely on antiviral drugs. The way we currently produce antiviral drugs lasts much longer than vaccines. And although we have some A wide spectrum antiviral drugsThe strongest antiviral drugs are very specific – which means one medicine Only one type of virus.

To be better preparation for future pandemia, many groups around the world are working on developing a drug library that operate against all families of viruses that can cause another pandemic.

Another approach is to develop completely novel technologies that are fully tested for one virus, but can be easily adapted to a novel virus. This approach can allow faster implementation, because safety and dosage details will already be understood.

This is one of the main goals of recently fired Cumming Global Center for Pandemic Therapeutics based at the Doherty Institute.

These ambitious efforts will require global cooperation, sharing resources and the involvement of the private sector.

After obtaining a vaccine or medicine that works, we need agreed systems to provide universal fair access. We were seriously missed with Covid. Some with low and medium income The countries received vaccines months or years later than high -income countries. For treatments, anti -virouses such as Paxlovid They have never been available in many countries.

This is one purpose of the agreement conducted by the WHO, called “Pandemic Accord“That Member States would agree to prevent pandemic, readiness and reaction. But after years of discussion, there is no binding agreement.

Preparation for the next pandemic

Like Covid (partly due to technological progress), the most intensively studied pandemic in human history, we have a unique resource in the record of what happened to inform our answer to every future pandemic.

And it is probably a matter, not if. Over the past five years, novel outbursts of infectious diseases have appeared, including MPOX, which has been recognized as a public health of international fears in July 2022 and again in August 2024.

At the moment there is an outbreak of a novel viral disease Congowhose beginnings still have have not been identified.

We know the bats he was thinking about Source From coronavirus behind Pandemia because of Covid, wear a huge spectrum of viruses that potentially threatens us. But novel pandemics can also appear through mosquitoes and close contact with other animals.

Pandemics are global, not domestic problems. We are at a crucial moment when countries, including Australia, must augment their obligations for this global effort. This will require politicians to rely on evidence and conclusions drawn from Covid, as well as private and public investments.

Unfortunately, five years later, we still have a long way to prepare for the next pandemic.