Three years after the first Covid case was identified in China, preparations
to stave off the next pandemic are starting to ramp up but far more needs to be
done to avoid repeating past mistakes, experts told AFP.
اضافة اعلان
Last week the 194 member states of the World Health Organization agreed to
start negotiations in February over a draft of a pandemic treaty aiming to
better respond to future threats.
Meanwhile the Pandemic Fund, which is hosted by the World Bank and was
launched last month by G20 nations, said on Wednesday it is preparing for its
first round of funding with a total of $1.6 billion pledged so far.
Another effort is being led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations (CEPI), which has a five-year, $3.5 billion plan that includes a
"100 Days Mission".
CEPI aims to develop a new vaccine against a potential "disease X"
within 100 days of the WHO identifying a pandemic threat.
CEPI CEO Richard Hatchett told AFP that the foundation was still around $800
million short of its funding goal, urging global decision makers not to lose
sight of pandemic preparedness while "focusing on the many crises in front
of them".
The plan includes connecting different institutes focusing on pandemic
preparedness such as the United States' BARDA, European Union's HERA, Japan's
SCARDA and more.
"I think with some light coordination, we could collectively advance
global preparedness very rapidly, particularly on the countermeasures
side," Hatchett said.
- Treatments and
testing -
One of those countermeasures would be swiftly developing new drugs to treat
an emerging "disease X".
In late August Canadian-born businessman Geoffrey Cumming donated AUS$250
million ($170 million) to set up a centre in the Australian city of Melbourne
to work towards that goal.
Infectious diseases expert Sharon Lewin, who will lead the Cumming Global
Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics, said it would aim to develop platform
technologies that can be rapidly updated to target new pathogens, similar to
what was done with mRNA vaccines for Covid.
While the centre is still recruiting, Lewin told AFP it would be "up
and running on the science" within six months.
Another key will be making tests available across the world as soon as
possible.
The non-profit FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, has worked with
WHO to get Covid tests to low- and middle- income countries.
However because CEPI did not reach its replenishment goal earlier this year,
"the entire diagnostics component of the 100 Days Mission is currently
unfunded," FIND CEO William Rodriguez told AFP.
"I don't think we're doing enough yet to be prepared for the next
pandemic from a resource perspective," he said.
- Potential virus
threats -
The WHO is currently working on updating its list of priority pathogens,
which will list the top contenders for the virus that could pose the next
pandemic threat.
Coronaviruses and influenza viruses will be among the main suspects because
of their proven pandemic potential.
Other possibilities include known threats such as Ebola and Zika.
"Each of these viruses may be just a few mutations away" from
being able to spread beyond their current limits, said Jennifer Nuzzo, the
founding director of the Pandemic Centre at Brown University in the US.
Other potential threats include Marburg and the arenavirus and paramyxovirus
families -- as well as the risk of new unknown diseases jumping from animals
over to humans.
But when it comes to deploying future vaccines, Nuzzo said "it's not
the science that worries me as much: it's the production."
- Inequality
remains -
"The tragedy of Covid, in my mind, was the unequal distribution of
vaccines when they became available," CEPI's Hatchett said, adding that
this inequity "prolonged the pandemic and probably led to the propagation
of variants".
All the experts who spoke to AFP emphasised that for the next pandemic,
regions such as Africa, South America, South Asia and the Middle East must be
able to access and manufacture future vaccines and treatments.
Mohga Kamal-Yanni of the NGO coalition People's Vaccine Alliance said early
statements from rich countries about the pandemic treaty were "incredibly
worrying".
"Any pandemic treaty should commit to an automatic waiver of
intellectual property rules for products needed to combat the health
threat," she said.
"And it should mandate the sharing of technology and know-how needed
for developing countries to manufacture medical technologies."
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