PANDEMIC AS WAKE-UP CALL
Now that COVID-19 is reaching one grim milestone after another, questions about its end are becoming more pressing. There is no easy answer, but history can serve as a reminder. In a decades-long relay race of scientists, doctors and governments, for example, an increasing number of diseases once considered incurable, like diabetes, cancer and AIDS, have somewhat come under control through new medicines.
Time after time, humans united as one gained an edge over common enemies and bailed the whole community out. From the ashes of World War II, the United Nations arose with consensus about peace and multilateralism. From the 2004 tsunami across the Indian Ocean to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, an array of international teams always came to the rescue. What's more, terrorism was put under a tight siege by a global military alliance.
This pandemic is no exception. "This is a wake-up call," Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said in December. "If there's one thing we need to take from this pandemic, with all of the tragedy and loss, (it) is that we need to get our act together."
Throughout the turbulence, mutual aid came flowing in. As early as January 2020, China submitted to the WHO and shared globally the virus's genome sequence, a boon for research into the disease and its vaccines. When July just started, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said there were already over 60,000 sequences shared.
"I think this is probably the first time that we've seen almost all countries willing to share the genetic sequence data of this virus in a public database through GISAID, through GENBANK," she said.
By noon on Feb. 5, 2020, China, then the epicenter of COVID-19, had received prevention and control supplies from 21 countries. Afterwards the virus hit the whole world, and China returned the favor. Italy sent 40,000 masks to China as soon as the health crisis broke out in Wuhan. Later China donated millions of masks back when COVID-19 raged in Italy.
As of January, China has provided assistance for over 150 countries, sent medical teams to those in need, offered funding to relevant United Nations agencies including the WHO, and provided countries around the world with over 220 billion masks, 2.25 billion protective suits and over 1 billion testing kits.
"Remember," Tedros said on Jan. 8 during a COVID-19 virtual press conference, "ending this pandemic is one of humanity's great races and whether we like it or not, we will win or lose this race together."
