The Covid-19 pandemic uncovered fracture lines in society that have the potential to destabilize free societies by internal and external groups using misinformation on social media, a new review warns.
According to the review, it is vital to learn the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to find a consensus on control measures during a future pandemic and prevention measures to decrease the risk of future pandemics.
The review, ‘Pandemic Preparedness - Political Perspectives’, has been published in Sustainable Microbiology, an Applied Microbiology International publication.
Pandemic preparedness
“Pandemic preparedness is a task not limited to governmental actions, but needs an active involvement of pharmaceutical industries, biotech companies, academic researchers, microbiological societies and last but not least the engagement of responsible citizens,” said corresponding author Dr Harald Brüssow.
“Two major infectious disease problems challenge our societies. The rise of antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacterial pathogens threatens the health systems with a partial return to a pre-antibiotic era if no novel antibiotics are developed. Death from AR bacterial pathogens will in some projections increase from 1 to 10 million humans per year worldwide.
“Meanwhile, viruses with the capacity to cross from wild animals to humans and which acquire the capacity to spread in the human population represent a constant threat for a new pandemic which could - as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic - also claim millions of human lives.”
Antibiotic development
Antibiotic development faces not only technical but also major financial hurdles due to an insufficient return of investments,” he said.
“Push and pull financial programs were designed to stimulate antibiotic development, but it is not yet clear whether this support is sufficient to assure the development of novel antibiotics to cope with increasingly AR pathogens.
“There is still ongoing discussion and no signature yet of a pandemic treaty at WHO meetings. Substantial investments going into the billions of USD are needed to support viral surveillance programs to characterize the pandemic potential of viruses harbored in wild animals living in environments disturbed by human activity or by climate change; to study animal viruses at live wet animal markets; to describe novel virus infections in human patients with fever, who do not yield a known viral pathogen.”
Balancing the costs
While the financial input needed is daunting, Dr Brüssow pointed out that billions in research investment for viral surveillance and antibiotic development have to be compared with trillions of economic losses caused either directly by the pathogens in mortality and morbidity, or indirectly by containment measures such as lockdowns or school closures to contain viral epidemics, or by the risk of routine surgical interventions should antibiotic prophylaxis against bacterial infection become inefficient.
“While pandemic preparedness measures are cost-efficient, political motivation to spend money to mitigate future risks are low with a COVID-19 pandemic transforming into an endemic infection,” he said.
Learning lessons from Covid
The review stresses that it is crucial to discuss the learning lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to find a consensus on control measures during a future pandemic and prevention measures to decrease the risk of future pandemics.
“The discussion and development of a consensus need to be conducted not only in parliaments but within the civil society. The controversies during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed fracture lines in our societies that have the potential to destabilize free societies by internal and external groups using misinformation on social media,” he said.
Learned societies
The role of learned societies in this consensus-building is clear: “Microbiological societies should intensify their efforts to communicate with the public in an understandable, but scientifically correct way to become sources for trusted information about microbes, infections and public health measures to contain epidemics.
“This should include material for schools and media to foster microbiological knowledge in the society and to encourage critical thinking by teaching how to cross-check the reliability of information sources.
“The task goes beyond pandemic preparedness but has implications for the cohesion of free societies in finding the right equilibrium between personal freedom and accepting restrictions for the common good and what it means to be a responsible citizen in a democratic society,” Dr Brüssow said.
Dr. Harald Brüssow evaluated and summarized the literature on pandemic preparedness issues. He is Guest Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium; Editor at Microbial Biotechnology, member of Applied Microbiology International and Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology. ‘Pandemic Preparedness - Political Perspectives’, has been published in Sustainable Microbiology, an Applied Microbiology International publication.
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