While healthcare organizations and executives are optimistic about the decreasing coronavirus prevalence, associated deaths, and availability of vaccines, people should not lose sight of the bigger picture: an upcoming pandemic. Through the years, the world has experienced a fair share of pandemics, including HIV/AIDS and polio. A vital takeaway from the coronavirus outbreak is that pandemics do not have a schedule, and the next one could occur in the next five, ten, or fifteen years.
The most important lesson learned from the coronavirus pandemic is disaster preparedness. Inadequate and restricted information from the COVID-19 outbreak’s epicenter affected the preparedness and early warning of the pandemic, which resulted in an outburst of cases of the aforementioned disease globally. By the time the infection was declared a global epidemic, it had already spread to numerous nations, owing to China’s extensive international connectivity to the world through tourism and transnational trade. Immediate travel constraints should have been imposed following the pandemic’s onset.
However, these restrictions were delayed in the initial outbreak country. The international market did not also suspend trade restrictions, even after the disease was declared a pandemic by the national medical emergency. In the future, people should not be controlled by domination and monetary affairs, which worsened the coronavirus situation by carrying the infection out of the globe.
Organizations should also target the development of fast, cost-effective, and reliable diagnostic methods. The cure for COVID-19 was found through the development of vaccines and drugs repurposing as antivirals against the novel coronavirus. However, this process experienced significant hurdles due to the unavailability of an appropriate animal model to study the infections and conduct pre-clinical trials. Current diagnostic methods for detecting the virus are grounded on RT-PCR, which identifies the incidence of viral nucleic acid in the sample, or a serological methodology that senses IgM and IgG antibodies formed due to the causative viral antigens.
The registered diagnostic methods provide results in less than fifteen minutes in the laboratory and are relatively expensive. Future diagnostic methods should focus on reducing the cost and time taken to produce outcomes.
Many countries did not impose a complete lockdown of their boundaries; thus, they suffered huge losses despite having advanced healthcare services. The pandemic reminds humans about establishing quick response strategies at all levels to mitigate upcoming outbreaks.
Furthermore, organizations should have coordinated research and dedicate resources to counter similar occurrences. The post-coronavirus era should be characterized by an advanced medical healthcare system equipped with robust research and development. Finally, humanity should learn from the hardships brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. People should take responsibility to contain future epidemics to prevent them from growing into pandemics due to geopolitical and economic benefits. A great boost in hygiene, healthcare, and research in life sciences that will, in turn, change the health status standard of the general public in the post-COVID era is also crucial.
In summation, among all influences, delayed response from relevant agencies, putting geopolitical and economic gains above human life, and inadequate awareness among responsible organizations and the public helped shape the coronavirus pandemic. The overall global response to the disease outbreak was insufficient. Moreover, there were considerable differences in how fast and appropriate different countries reacted because there was no known drug or vaccine against the virus. A key takeaway from the said experience is that fast and aggressive action is critical in future situations.