The latest issue of Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, published the results of a study on strategies to minimise the impact of future pandemics. The article is co-authored by Professor Mariusz Gujski, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Medical University of Warsaw.

According to the authors of the report, the world’s response to the pandemic cannot be considered sufficient. It has been hampered by political, social and behavioural factors, such as false information spread not only on social media, reluctance to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2, lack of global coordination and inequitable distribution of equipment, vaccines and medicines.

“Each country responded differently and often inappropriately, largely due to a lack of consensus as well as clearly defined objectives”, says the study’s coordinator, Prof. Jeffrey V. Lazarus of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

A panel of 386 experts from 100 countries came up with a list of recommendations. The most important of these are: a common strategy for the whole population, thus avoiding fragmentation of efforts; coordination between ministries to make the health system more efficient; and maintaining the ‘vaccination plus’ concept, which includes mass vaccination against COVID-19, as well as other preventive measures, and access to optimal treatment and financial support. The recommendations developed have been officially endorsed by more than 150 organisations worldwide.

By October 2022, more than 630 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 6.5 million deaths had been reported worldwide. So-called long-lasting COVID continues to pose a significant risk to convalescents and is not amenable to treatment. The virus continues to mutate, so it can potentially bypass the barriers created by vaccination. For these reasons, the authors of the study continue to consider COVID-19 a serious global public health threat.

Arkadiusz Slomczynski