NEW DELHI: Massive multiple-level global failure in responding to Covid-19 led to millions of preventable deaths, says a Lancet Covid-19 Commission report criticising slow and cautious reactions by the governments and even the World Health Organization (WHO) for not warning about the human transmissibility of the virus in time. The Commission said even the 17.7 million worldwide Covid death numbers are underestimated.
“This staggering death toll is both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels,” said the Lancet Commission, led by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Professor at Columbia University (USA) and President of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.The Commission, which critically evaluated the global response in the first two years of the biggest health crisis, noted that the international multilateral system could not deal with a modern pandemic.
The Commission cited widespread prevention failures, problems maintaining transparency, rational decisions, essential public health practice, operational cooperation and international solidarity.“Too many governments have failed to adhere to basic norms of institutional rationality and transparency, too many people - often influenced by misinformation - have disrespected and protested against basic public health precautions, and the world’s major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic,” the report said.
Commenting on the role of the WHO, the Commission said that the world health body “acted too cautiously and too slowly on several important matters”, which included a warning about the “human transmissibility of the virus” to “declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, to support international travel protocols designed to slow the spread of the virus.”