A year ago, during a press conference the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 was a pandemic. Some say the declaration came too late, a forerunner of the chaos and hardship that would follow throughout the coming year, where half of humanity faced restrictions just a month later.
"In early January, we knew this was a pandemic and many of us were saying it publicly. The moment we saw the virus was spreading throughout East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, within a few weeks of "The first discovery, we should have declared it a pandemic virus. We did not; the world did not, and for me it was the beginning of inaction in response," Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, told Euronews. TH, Chan School of Public Health.
At the time Covid was declared a pandemic last March, there were more than 118,000 confirmed cases of the virus in 114 countries and more than 4,000 deaths. Many European countries closed the same week amid rising hospitalizations.
Exactly one year later, there are more than 117 million cases and 2.6 million deaths worldwide, representing a 99,000% increase in the number of infections.
But the statement on March 11, 2020, was without much fuss, with the warning of the director general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that they do not easily use the word "pandemic".
"The pandemic is not used carelessly. As a matter of fact, if misused, it can cause fear, the wrong admission that we have no reason to fight anymore, and it brings unnecessary suffering and death. Describing the situation as pandemic, the WHO does not change the risk assessment for this coronavirus. It does not change the work plan and does not change the measures taken by the states. "
Now, many experts have said that this is the worst pandemic of the century, as it has turned people's lives upside down globally and made comparisons with the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, responsible for tens of millions of deaths.
Pandemics are not affected by the severity of the disease, but by the geographical spread. According to the WHO, a new disease is called a pandemic when affected people around the world lack immune protection.
There has been criticism of the WHO for declaring a health emergency. A WHO committee met on 22 January 2020 and decided not to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, but reversed the decision a week later when the situation evolved rapidly.
Other experts have criticized governments for lack of preparation following the WHO declaration of Covid-19 as a global health emergency.
Sources: WHO, Euronews, Guardian
