Lessons from the pandemic

Discussion in the international scientific community about the possibility of new or emerging viruses with the ability to unleash a pandemic date back to the 1990s, gaining momentum with the advent of SARS in 2003 and the H1N1 flu in 2009. The World Health Organization (WHO) and several governments started making plans for such an eventuality, yet when the novel coronavirus pandemic struck, no one was adequately prepared. Even powerful countries we would expect to lead the battle against the coronavirus proved weak. They were taken by surprise in the first wave and underestimated the virus' strength and transmissibility in the major economic and cultural centers of our interconnected world. They also failed to predict that a new and especially contagious virus, combined with low levels of immunity in the population, would trigger a second, more dangerous wave with the advent of...