Explained | Four years of Covid crisis: What did we learn from the pandemic?

Monday (Mar 11) is the fourth anniversary of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which is the worst health crisis in more than a century. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since then, millions died and even millions more are facing aftereffects of having been infected with the virus. The health infrastructure of almost all countries collapsed in combating the pandemic. 

Lockdowns, social distancing, isolation, and hand sanitisation became the news words of caution. Schools, colleges and most workplaces were shut at the peak of the pandemic. Various business sectors were affected which led to severe economic crises in major countries. People lost their loved ones, friends and acquaintances to the virus.

So what went wrong - government response (in combating COVID-19), people's ignorance in adhering to safety measures, or a delay in declaring COVID-19 a health crisis?

A rewind

Let's go back in time to December 2019. People in China's Wuhan were getting infected with a mysterious type of pneumonia. These infections were later found to be cases of the suspected SARS Coronavirus. 

Dr Li Wenliang, a Chinese ophthalmologist, warned his colleagues about early COVID-19 cases in the city. Dr Li became the whistleblower of this pandemic but unfortunately died after getting infected with the virus. 

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Most of the early cases in Wuhan were linked to the Huanan seafood market. The market became the epicentre of the virus which first started spreading outside China and then to the rest of the world. 

COVID-19 spreads easily from person to person, riding respiratory droplets in the air, killing some victims but leaving most to bounce back without much harm. At any moment, the virus can change to become more transmissible, more able to sidestep the immune system or more deadly.

Initial response of countries

When infections first started spreading outside China, a majority of the countries responded quickly through non-pharmaceutical interventions such as sanitising hands, maintaining social distancing and seeking medical help in case of any symptoms.

Despite these interventions, there was a lack of public health infrastructure to treat the infected patients - hospital beds to accommodate patients, machinery to treat them, and medicines.

Trust eroded in public health agencies. At the peak of the pandemic, medical workers including doctors, nurses and other staff were working round-the-clock, sometimes staying in hospitals for days.

Massive protests were held in several countries due to their government's handling of the health crisis. Several ministers and political advisors were forced to step down. There was also growing anger over countries underreporting the number of deaths and cases. 

China faces global backlash

China, where the pandemic originated, faced huge global backlash for not informing the world about the virus on time. The WHO sent a team of experts to Beijing to investigate the source of the virus. 

For a long time, China resisted demands from other countries to allow independent investigators on its soil to study COVID-19 origins. China already had deteriorated relations with the West over trade, technology, military and human rights. And the pandemic further worsened the relations. 

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A report by the New York Times (NYT) in 2021 said that Chinese officials also provided little data from samples that the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention took in December 2019 at the Huanan Seafood Market. Perhaps the provision of complete data here could have prevented COVID-19 from becoming the health crisis it is today.

Vaccination and profiteering behind it

Vaccination has become one of the most important aspects of combating COVID-19. Pharma giants started manufacturing vaccines of single and double doses. As vaccine manufacturing ramped up, developed and developing countries started delivering jabs to the poorest of countries.

However, these consignments were not enough due to limited government budgets. Pharma giants including Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech were accused of profiteering from vaccine manufacturing.

A report by Oxfam International in 2021 said that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna were making combined profits of $65,000 every minute while the world's poorest countries remained unvaccinated.

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"These companies have sold the majority of doses to rich countries, leaving low-income countries out in the cold. Pfizer and BioNTech have delivered less than one per cent of their total vaccine supplies to low-income countries, while Moderna has delivered just 0.2 per cent. Meanwhile, 98 per cent of people in low-income countries have not been fully vaccinated," the report said.

Still a health crisis

In May last year, WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that COVID-19 no longer constituted a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend, with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing and the pressure on health systems easing,” Ghebreyesus said on May 5, adding, "It is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency."

It has been more than four years since the pandemic began. COVID-19 is still a health crisis and can worsen at any point in time. So will governments, and citizens be better prepared for such a health crisis in future?

Or will this cycle of traumatic events start all over again?