Coronavirus Pandemic has taken over the entire world in a matter of a few months. It has affected more than half a million of the people and claimed thousands of lives so far. COVID-19 is not the first pandemic that has been experienced by the world in this millennium. Despite this, a common global action plan has not developed to tackle pandemics in an effective manner.
Global Response to the Pandemic
The Coronavirus pandemic has delivered a catastrophic blow to the global economy. The G20 leaders have declared that they would inject the global economy with $5 trillion to counter this devastating effect. However, these efforts are not sufficient to tackle the pandemic. Much more collective efforts will be required to defeat the pandemic in every manner.
Since the last few years, the rise of protectionism in the world has led to a decline in the spirit of globalization. It has also reduced the power and impact of global multilateral organizations. National interests are taking precedence over global good. While these principles might work for trade and security, it is a major road-block in the fight against a pandemic that has affected all the countries of the world.
Way Forward
National distancing has played a major role in the rapid spreading of the diseases. For example, had China been quicker in reporting the virus to the World Health Organization, perhaps the spread of the disease in the entire world would have been checked. While the past cannot be changed, it can certainly be used to learn lessons from it and not repeating the same mistakes.
In this context, the countries of the world will need to collaborate with each other in the following areas and unite to defeat the virus.
Exchange of information
Humanity comes before every other interest. In order to defeat the virus, the countries will have to not look at the outbreak as an opportunity to prove superiority or to make more money, and to look at it as a common enemy that needs to be defeated at any cost. The countries will need to focus on finding solutions and pass along the solutions to other affected regions immediately to save as many lives as possible.
Pooling Global Resources
Fragmented resources and knowledge might take a long time to find treatment for the disease. However, pooling all the resources will make it much faster and efficient. This may also bring some acceptable commercial solution that adequately incentivises private research while ensuring benefits being available to the entire world at affordable costs. Such a framework might be necessary for sustained collaborations for future challenges.
Quick and Easy Movement of Warriors
There is a need to facilitate easy movement of trained health professionals across the world. These professionals, in turn, can train others and pass on their expertise which can be used to build an army of healthcare warriors. This will enable the nations to come together to organise a global army to fight the pandemic, equipped with the best weapons and tools.
Easing the Logistics
It is important to ensure that shortages of drugs, medical equipment and protective gear do not come in the way of any nation’s capacity to contain or fight the pandemic. In order to accomplish this, there is a need to establish protocols, among countries to ensure seamless logistics for the supply chain for essential goods and services to function efficiently.
At a time when the world is close to experiencing Fourth Industrial Revolution, if a pandemic like this can bring the world down to its knees, then it is plausible that more such pandemics will keep coming. Such collaboration at this time will set the stage for tackling the future pandemics in a seamless manner.
