There were “massive global failures” in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the world’s top health experts writing as part of the Lancet Commission said in a report released on Wednesday, blaming national governments that were “unprepared and too slow” and the World Health Organization for not declaring a public health emergency and recognising airborne spread of the virus on time.
The Lancet Commission assessment by 28 experts was part of the report on the lessons for the
There were “massive global failures” in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the world’s top health experts writing as part of the Lancet Commission said in a report released on Wednesday, blaming national governments that were “unprepared and too slow” and the World Health Organization for not declaring a public health emergency and recognising airborne spread of the virus on time.
The Lancet Commission assessment by 28 experts was part of the report on the lessons for the future from the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the areas pointed out in the report where WHO faltered include warning about the human transmissibility of the virus, to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), to support international travel protocols designed to slow the spread of the virus, to endorse the public use of face masks as protective gear, and to recognise the airborne transmission of the virus.
“The staggering human toll of the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic is a profound tragedy and a massive societal failure at multiple levels”, said Jeffrey Sachs, chair of the Commission, University professor at Columbia University (US), in a statement by the Commission.
“We must face hard truths—too many governments have failed to adhere to basic norms of institutional rationality and transparency; too many people have protested basic public health precautions, often influenced by misinformation; and too many nations have failed to promote global collaboration to control the pandemic.”
Calling it “widespread, global failures” at multiple levels, the Commission said the lapses led to millions of preventable deaths and reversed progress made towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many countries.
As per the experts’ estimates 17.7 million Covid deaths happened globally, including those unreported, in the first two years. The report added that “the number was likely to be an underestimate”. The reported toll at the end of December, 2021 was a little under 5.5 million, and on March 11, 2022 – two years after the PHEIC declaration was made – a little over 6 million.
For India, the report said that the combination of new variants, particularly the spread of the Delta variant, and crowd events proved devastating, even though it was among the first countries to impose travel restrictions, suspend international flights, and impose a strict lockdown, which provided the time needed for health care system to prepare.
“India reported roughly 20 million Covid-19 infections and 250,000 deaths attributed to the disease between Jan 1 and June 30, 2021, but the actual numbers are estimated to be vastly higher. Seroprevalence of Covid-19 IgG antibodies in non-vaccinated individuals older than 6 years increased from 24% in December, 2020 and January, 2021, to 62% in June and July, 2021, confirming that hundreds of millions of people were infected during the Delta wave,” read the report.
“The IHME (Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation) estimates that there were around 417 million infections and 1.6 million deaths from Covid-19 in India between April 1 and July 1, 2021, compared with just 18 million reported cases and 252,997 reported deaths.”
The Indian government has from the start maintained there is robust Covid death audit system in place, and that there has been no under-reporting of Covid deaths.
“Time and again it has been clarified— on various national and international platforms— that deaths due to Covid-19 are being well documented. The data is available on government website for everyone to see and gets updated regularly,” said a senior central government official aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.
The report, however, does credit a high vaccination rate for fewer hospitalizations and deaths during the third wave in India.
Experts say the purpose of putting strict restrictions in place very early on during the pandemic did serve its purpose.
“It was meant to provide time for the health care system to cope as owing to India’s vast size, the transmission was expected to be high. The governments got adequate time to upgrade the health infrastructure— create isolation facilities, procure diagnostic kits, ventilators, etc. It was a good and timely executed step,” said Dr KK Talwar, former director, PGI Chandigarh.
On the impact of lockdowns, the report said that stringent lockdowns in India helped to slow the spread of Covid-19 but brought about severe economic and social hardships: gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 24% for the second quarter of 2020 and 6.6% in 2020-21.
Another important aspect of the report is on vaccine nationalism that many vaccine manufacturing countries indulged in. “…COVAX failed to deliver on its targets and timelines because vaccine-producing companies made contracts directly with the governments that paid the highest prices, rather than with COVAX, which insisted on lower prices for low-income countries. Moreover, vaccine-producing countries, such as India, imposed export bans on vaccines rather than delivering them to COVAX as promised.”
The COVAX facility is a WHO-led initiative for equitable distribution of vaccines. It aimed to garner funding from rich nations to support vaccine development and production and equitably distribute it to all parts of the world, including poorer nations.
To lessen the impact of future health threats, and achieve long-term sustainable development, the Commission added that there must be “strengthened multilateralism that must centre around a reformed and bolstered WHO, as well as investments and refined planning for national pandemic preparedness and health system strengthening, with special attention to populations experiencing vulnerability”.
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