Covid-19 Pandemic a Call for Action

It’s almost August 2021, and we are 20 months into the Covid-19 pandemic that altered in so many ways. One of the most substantial pandemic impacts is literally human freedom. An essential need that was conspicuous for so many reasons. The great achievements of the pharmaceutical industry, developing a novel vaccine in less than a year is remarkable. Nevertheless, 20 months into the pandemic, it is manifest that vaccination won’t shield us from the versatile Covid-19 virus. Covid-19 holds many variants that reproduce constantly over time and are somehow hard to predict. Consequently, one can expect the never-ending production of new virus species, that will be durable to the existing vaccines. The vaccination of all the world population seems to be mission impossible, in addition to the diversity and efficacy of each one of the presented vaccines. Moreover, even the most promising vaccines, e.g., Pfizer and Moderna, applying mRNA technology are not bulletproof, with a consistent reduction in the resilience to cope with the new variants. Globalization didn’t contribute to the discussion pattern, where people immigrate with new species from country to country. The attempt to restrict this precedent achieves limited effect, where some of the virus species are 1000 times more contagious than others (e.g., Delta variant). Subsequently, a small number of infected patients can infect an enormous amount of people. The strategy must change, no lonelier wolf strategy, where more capable countries keep the solution to themselves. It’s time for countries to be united and look at the big picture. It didn’t happen by mistake that the most aggressive variant comes from low-income populated countries (i.e., the delta variant immigrated from India). The strategy must be shaped to fit a broader solution, where the benefit of humanity should be the lead target. Taking it into action, there should be a central body that will manage the vaccine production and distribution globally. Allowing technology transfer and localization of Covid-19 vaccine production into mid-low-income countries. Harnessing the leading vaccine producer to this global mission, should somehow relieve the current situation and accelerate global vaccination, especially in hazardous rural areas. Additionally, it seems inevitable that an accessible treatment with prophylaxis features must be developed to complete the overall strategy. Restrictions and quarantine can only be effective for a limited amount of time, we need to know to live with the virus in a class of rules and actions that will apply the right balance. To cope with that, governments need a bigger arsenal of viable solutions (e.g., vaccines, treatments, apply health strategies). Harvesting the great success of developing an effective vaccine in time record, can only be achieved if we won’t fail in the supply and distribution of the solution. Until now we did good but not great, and it comes with a price, allowing new species to loom on our future. Unfortunately, I believe that it will be worst before it going to be any better, because of the upcoming winter and the weakening of the disciplines of the population globally. Spice it with new emerge variant rapid creation and with limited vaccination resilience and supply issues and you have the perfect storm. This manifesto has a wider impact on humanity, from a health perspective. People are not getting their diagnosis early in the process and consequently don’t get treatments resulting in the deterioration of their health condition. Quarantine and isolation bring more sociological and psychological problems that result in a declination of productivity and personal development. The magnitude of the pandemic influence is yet to be revealed, nevertheless, it has and will have a massive impact on humanity. That is why I’m calling the captains of the world G7-G20, to take a call and work together on a global strategy earlier than later, to minimize the pandemic impact. This stubborn virus had shown us so far that it is hard to handle and change constantly, the past teaches us that only diversify multi-level and countries' strategies can cope with the elusive threat.

References:

Dr. Shlomo Sadoun:

Chief Executive Officer at SK Pharma | Co-Founder & Chairman at DrugsIntel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shlomo-sadoun-5a72586/

Article:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/covid-19-pandemic-call-action-dr-shlomo-sadoun/