Without Investment We Are Sitting Ducks For A Pandemic

Are we there yet? The promised land of hybrid immunity, vaccine coverage and endemicity where Covid-19 is no longer a threat to our everyday lives? Simply put: no.

- TERESA LAMBE

Don't get me wrong, we are in a far better, safer place than we were three years ago. I will always remember the dark shadow that Sars-CoV-2 cast in 2020 – this then-unknown virus, first devastating China, then Italy, and finally arriving on our shores. How would we cope?

Claps rang out, people rallied, national pride was buoyed – carrying us stoically through some of the toughest of times. And promises were made. Never again would we demand so much of our frontline workers. Never again would such a high cost be paid by our most vulnerable. Never again would we be so ill-equipped for a pandemic.

There were many hard-learned lessons, but there was a modicum of comfort knowing that we could use this knowledge to help build what wasn’t there before: a robust plan of action to better prepare us for the next pandemic – investing in the people, the places and the policy to ensure that we would be better prepared for the next pandemic.

Yet, it seems we haven’t taken these lessons to heart (or head). Covid-19 positive cases appear to be rising. Thankfully, admissions to intensive care units (ICU) remain low, largely down to hybrid immunity and vaccine use.