Covid-19 Crisis
View or download a copy of the transcript and slides here
In 2020 I was invited by the university to conduct an exploratory study into COVID-19 and state preparedness. The intended audience was the general public and anyone interested in pandemic and disaster preparedness. Disaster management and responses to crises are part of the research expertise of Miranda and her team. The research was conducted from Darwin, Australia as a home base. We presented the findings to the University and the wider academic community in person and via remote conferencing. I gave this presentation multiple times as the situation evolved and there are copies of some of the talks available on YouTube.
Abstract:
In September 2019, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (see GPMB Annual Report) warned that a highly lethal global pandemic was likely, and that the world was not prepared. Three months later, patients in the city of Wuhan, China, began to seek medical help for pneumonia-like symptoms; the first cases of today’s global pandemic. Did the world prepare for COVID-19? This seminar introduces the concept of epidemic and pandemic preparedness, before investigating the gap between policies for preparedness, and their implementation by countries around the world. Using historical examples such as Malaria, SARS and Ebola, the seminar discusses literature that demonstrates that countries have tended to react to outbreaks by following a cycle of ‘crisis’- investment in the immediate response - and ‘complacency’ – by reducing investment once the immediate health risks have passed. Reasons for these cycles include a lack of financial capacity, political will, competition for resources, risk perception and cognitive bias. COVID-19 suggests that frameworks that emerged in the aftermath of such crises, such as the Health-Emergency Disaster Risk Management Framework (2019), have failed to overcome these challenges. Worryingly, previous leaders in the arena of global health security – such as the United States– now seem to be stuck in a repetition of complacency. The economic, social and political consequences are increasingly severe. The seminar concludes by highlighting the lessons of COVID-19 and offers recommendations to break the cycle of crisis and complacency that has accompanied pandemics.