COVID-19 Lessons learned

The actual pandemic shows the weaknesses of the healthcare sector on global basis. The healthcare sector wouldn't resist alone under the crisis and we would have seen a much higher number of deaths in all countries. Therefore other complementary measures and policies had to be taken in order to support it. The unavoidable result was to reach the lock down in the majority of the countries.

From Ethical point of view, I agree with the adopted policies, of isolation, self-isolation, lock down etc.  and I believe that they are the only ways since there are no available alternatives. 

I find, however, this kind of measures very basic and simple. Social distancing is same measure used in the middle ages to reduce number of victims in pandemic times.  

This kind of measure was taken in times when countries didn't have national health systems and advance medical technologies as we have nowadays. 

Our hyper-connected world and the advanced technologies accelerate the spread of this virus all over the world. At same time, the level of health and technology we have is still not enough to face a pandemic.

Effect of the lock down on the global economy

During March and April, big part of the humanity was in lock down which has produced a dramatic drop in the global economic growth for 2020 as well as in the stock market.

Schools, industries, Airlines companies, tourism, cultural events were reduced to the minimum if not completely stopped.

We see also the oil price's sharp drop because of the demand shock. 

I believe that the damage on the economy will extend to the coming few years and that there will be a need for a long term recovery plan.  

Weaknesses of Healthcare sectors

After the financial crisis 2007-2008, austerity economical politics were used in several counties on different levels. One of the most important victims of those politics is the healthcare sector. decrease of public funds and public spending is introduced, causing a reduction in number of beds and medical equipment.

The number of ICU beds and ICU ventilators are not enough to receive high number of patients in short period of time. Actually the aim of the lock down is not to stop the spread of the virus but it is to distribute the number of patients on a longer period of time in order to be able to manage them with the available number of ICU beds and ventilators. 

We found also that only few countries in the world have a real national up-to-date strategy to face pandemic. The clearest proof about this is the change of declarations of UK's Prime Minister Boris  Johnson from "herd immunity" to "stay home"! 

From the other hand, also the stock, in many countries, of PPE Personal Protective Equipment such isolation suits and masks for the medical staff was not enough to cover a massive use for a period of time enough to absorb the initial shock and to refills the stocks.  

The healthcare system is strategic

A weak healthcare system with limited access to the facilities, reduced number of beds and ICU equipment would not be able to absorb the high demand during a pandemic.

The higher is the public expenditure on health, the lower is the lock down measures and the faster is the recovery after the emergency in a country.

This shows how important and strategic is the health system to a country.

The strategic importance of the health system is not limited to the medical facilities, equipment and staff but it is extended to all related organization, logistics and industries.

For example, Italy was starving, by the beginning of the emergency, to provide FFP3 masks to its medical staff because it was completely depending on external suppliers and didn't have enough stock. Understanding the importance, Italy started to produce masks locally.

The health system cannot be completely private. Services should be supplied by the public sector or at least supplied under its control. During a pandemic, the service given to a patient don't have benefits on the patient itself only but it is extended to the community then to the national level. Therefore, all costs related to the pandemic should be born by the state.

In my opinion, the economical effects of the lock down already calculated till now and their perspective on the future years are equivalent if not higher than the saving resulting from reducing expenses on public health by the different spending reviews.

Conclusion 

The general attention in this phase of pandemic is all about how to manage the emergency and how to reduce the number of victims and the effects of the virus.

Once the emergency phase is terminated, high attention must be given to the healthcare sector and its infrastructure. I believe that investments in healthcare will become central in the near future and will cover fields like the development of traditional infrastructures, the support of home care and mass screening apps.  

Photo by CDC on Unsplash