València (EFE).- The epidemiologist and former director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Daniel López Acuña assures that the covid-19 pandemic “is not over”, advises continuing with measures such as vaccination or the use of masks and warns of the risk of a future pandemic for which, he indicates, “we are not sufficiently prepared”.
“The war against the pandemic has not ended, nor has the disease been eradicated nor has the virus disappeared,” says López Acuña, who has given the conference “The importance of not trivializing the covid19 pandemic” at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). ”, organized by the Medicarama Technology and Health Chair and the Fisabio Foundation.
In statements to EFE, the former director of health action in crisis situations of the WHO is in favor of continuing to use the mask. “It is something very useful and we should continue using them in poorly ventilated places, on public transport where sufficient social distance cannot be maintained”, as well as in sanitary and socio-sanitary facilities, he affirms.
Risk of an avian flu pandemic
He warns that the risk of a future pandemic “exists”, and specifically points out that we are “facing a level of risk where we could easily have an avian flu pandemic” that affects humans.
“Also with climate change and the jump from animal species to humans we can have a pandemic situation of some unknown virus and for which we still do not have the control measures for it,” says the associate professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health.
“We are not sufficiently prepared”
He believes that in the face of a future pandemic “we are not sufficiently prepared. We have learned things but we have not internalized many of the lessons, we do not have detailed continence plans or adequate pandemic preparation and we have to pay attention to be better prepared”.
He considers that society has already “forgotten” that we have a pandemic. “There is too much amnesia in relation to the problem and an attitude of thinking that we can now shelve it and consider it settled”, and he assures that “the WHO declaration of the end of the international health emergency” has been confused “with thinking that It’s the end of the pandemic.”
The Challenge: Keeping Transmission at Bay
“The pandemic has not come to an end, we have the active virus, there is transmission, there are still variants that are emerging and that can escape the efficacy of the vaccines. There are very precarious balances, with which we must be careful, and we are going to require vaccination protection, especially in autumn and winter”.
The virus “has not disappeared and continues to have a presence and an impact that we do not pay enough attention to,” insists the epidemiologist, who adds that the “challenge” continues to be “keeping transmission at bay”, stressing that it is “inadvisable encourage the false security that has been installed by proclaiming that the pandemic has already passed ”.
We have underestimated the persistent covid
He also regrets that the chronic complications represented by persistent covid have been “ignored”, which he considers “we have underestimated” and to which he advises “paying attention”, and highlights the “great psychosocial impact” that the pandemic has had.
“It has notably affected people’s mental health and has generated ‘pandemic fatigue’ both in health professionals and in the public”, aspects for which he considers that “priority attention” should be paid.
Better Pandemic Preparedness Needed
In his opinion, the reactions when the covid-19 pandemic began “clearly did not live up to the facts” and, therefore, in the face of a future pandemic, it is necessary to have more “anticipatory capacity, more legal instruments of a binding, better pandemic preparation and contingency plans and better international, regional and national governance for this type of situation”.
“We must invest more in human, technological and organizational resources dedicated to the prevention and anticipation of international health emergencies,” says López Acuña, who stresses the need to “strengthen public health systems”, which during the pandemic suffered a considerable care pressure.