https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science ... tudy-warnsSeasonal flu can cause persistent health problems similar to long Covid, study warns
Researchers in the US found that patients hospitalised for both diseases could suffer long-term problems, with Covid proving more dangerous in most cases
‘Long Covid is much more of a health problem than Covid, and long flu is much more of a health problem than the flu,’ says lead researcher Ziyad Al-Aly
However, as several public health and infectious disease experts have warned in the past few years, the question of another pandemic is not so much a matter of if, but when.
Are we prepared for the next pandemic?
Professor Kelley Lee has been studying the governance of global pandemics for years, and most recently her work with the Pandemics & Borders international research group has been reflecting on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen strategies for future outbreaks.
Broadly, her work aims to answer the question: is the world prepared for another pandemic?
"I would say the short answer is no, we're not anywhere near prepared. And indeed, in some ways, I think we're worse prepared than we were prior to COVID-19," she said.
Professor Lee says the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic has been how global collaboration was instrumental in managing the spread and science the virus — from identifying SARS-CoV-2 as a novel pathogen, to developing vaccines and potential drug treatments.
And conversely, where coordination was lacking, it slowed down the world's ability to bring the virus under control. One example was the varied approaches to imposing travel restrictions and border controls, which her research has shown came at huge economic and societal cost.
"When you have an uncoordinated introduction of policies, where every country did things differently and would change them over time … it's nothing short of chaotic," she said. "It's costly, but it's also not a good way of managing risk."
Professor Lee says jockeying between countries and their citizens over access to resources, "vaccine nationalism" and other behaviours such as people hoarding ventilators and masks, did significant damage. "Populations that really needed those essential supplies didn't get them in time or didn't get them at all," she says.
Over time she believes this contributed to a pervasive corrosion in trust and social cohesion.
"We're more divided than we were before COVID. You would think that a generational event such as this would have brought us closer together … but in general, societies are more fragmented, less cohesive, and less trusting. That kind of social environment makes us far less likely to cooperate or coordinate our efforts, from the local level all the way up to the global level."
Anthony Fauci on the lessons from COVID, and the tragedy of divisiveness
As Anthony Fauci wraps up as chief medical adviser at the White House, he says the world must heed the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Lee says she's seeing this play out in the ongoing Global Pandemic Accord Negotiations, which this week failed to finalise a draft agreement after more than two years of discussion.
Dr Adalja, who has been advising public health bodies in the US during the recent H5N1 outbreaks, says a similar dynamic is frustrating efforts to manage the virus there.
He says there has been a lack of transparency around testing, and in many cases a lack of access for public health authorities. The setting of this outbreak – in dairy farms across a dozen or so states – adds a layer of bureaucracy that has further complicated the process. At times, public health officials from the CDC haven't been in sync with the Department of Agriculture, or with the state governments which must grant access for federal health officials to carry out testing on farms.
"We saw with swine flu in 2009, there was reticence to really address the risk on farms, and to sample farms — this has gotten better, but we always run into this because there is a very big commercial aspect in terms of export, and domestic consumption of meat and milk," he said.
"So these types of things are constraining the ability to do more widespread testing, to get more important public health information out, at least to the farm workers where we think this risk is really high."
On top of that, Dr Adalja notes that the stigma associated with testing for a highly pathogenic avian influenza carries a huge economic risk — Colombia has already restricted imports of beef from US states where dairy cows have tested positive, and Japan and the US have made similar moves to suspend Victorian poultry imports. But this matters on a micro level, too.
"Many of the people that work on these farms are migrant workers. They may not be willing to be tested because if they're sick, or if they're found to be positive, they won't be able to work, which means they won't get paid," he said.
Dr Adalja is concerned that if we don't get the response right this time, it doesn't bode well for any future pandemic scenario.
"The problems we're seeing now are not a good indicator of how well we would handle a more serious bird flu. It's important to get this ironed out, because it's likely going to involve agriculture of some sort, whether that's poultry, cattle, or swine, so we need to have really robust surveillance of what's going on there."
https://www.theguardian.com/society/art ... long-covid‘I could bench-press 100kg. Now, I can’t walk’: Lucy’s life with long Covid
https://www.theguardian.com/society/art ... long-covidChildhood, interrupted: 12-year-old Toby’s life with long Covid
Toby at his home in east London. He often struggles to walk more than 50 metres.
More than 110,000 children in England and Scotland are still suffering. For Toby, it has meant pain, crushing fatigue and sadness – as well as months off school
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