Robust health system best shield against epidemics, says WHO’s Margaret Harris

The novel coronavirus outbreak took many countries by surprise, causing delays in lockdown measures that are resulting in thousands of deaths. But how unexpected, really, was the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 and how seriously do we need to take various "miracle cures" being touted by certain media and politicians?

Kathimerini turned to Dr Margaret Harris, a member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) coronavirus response team and one of its spokespeople, for some answers to these and other questions pertaining to the pandemic.

WHO has been talking about a disease X for some time. Is Covid-19 it? Does it have the potential to become that? Why were so many countries so ill-prepared given that they should have expected it?

Disease X represents the potential for a serious international epidemic to be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to...