The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an independent body created by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, in a new report on Tuesday decried that the coronavirus pandemic had revealed how little the world had focused on preparing for such disasters, despite ample warnings that large disease outbreaks were inevitable, Al Jazeera reports.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is providing a harsh test of the world's preparedness," the report said, concluding that little progress had been made on any of the actions it had called for in its initial report last year, before Covid-19 struck.
"Failure to learn the lessons of COVID-19 or to act on them with the necessary resources and commitment will mean that the next pandemic, which is sure to come, will be even more damaging," it warned.
This will not be the last global health emergency. The world simply cannot afford to be unprepared again, warned the GPMB.