Thread by @TelGlobalHealth

💸Covid is set to cost the world at least £21.5 trillion💸

But scientists say the world needs to spend just £35 billion to make sure it never happens again.

This is what they say we should spend the money on...

@ClaireeBeers

We have the right technology to extinguish the next pandemic threat within a decade – but politicians have to unite and channel resources into three main areas:

🛑Prevention
😷Suppression
💉Eradication

@PaulNuki & @sneweyy explain more below ~ 🧵
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

🛑Prevention🛑

Sars-Cov-2 was spotted early by China, but not soon enough.

The virus was isolated and sequenced within two to three months of the first known cases in Wuhan, but by that time it had already escaped

Dr Joe DeRisi, a biochemist who first sequenced the Sars virus in 2003 and a pioneer in genetic sequencing, speaks for everyone who is anyone in pandemic planning when he says the world needs a new "early warning radar" for the detection of new pathogens

"What's frustrating is right before the pandemic we were in the initial stages of building a global early warning radar, or weather map, to identify and track new microbes," Dr DeRisi told the @Telegraph

Dr DeRisi had already set up centres in 11 countries including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal, Cambodia, Kenya and South Africa when Covid broke out.

If it had been 100 countries or more, the present-day might feel very different, he says

😷Suppression😷

Spotting a new pathogen early is one thing, but buying the time to suppress it while vaccines and treatments can be developed is equally vital
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

The great bulk of the global cost of Covid will be picked up by countries that failed to put those counter-measures in place ahead of the outbreak.

This not only requires detailed planning but also the structures in place to empower healthcare providers at a local level

Countries like the UK and US, suffered the most because they had to scramble to purchase PPE and establish track and trace capacity after the fact.

While South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand all had detailed suppression strategies mapped out in advance

"You can have the best data, the best interventions, the best drugs. But if you don't have the political and social structures to implement them at the right time, they're not going to work," @PeterHorby, the inaugural director of @UniofOxford's new Pandemic Sciences Centre, said

💉Eradication💉

With a new pathogen detected and its spread temporarily suppressed, the final challenge – alongside developing tests and drugs – will be creating a vaccine quickly to kill it off

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

Experts like @DrRHatchett, CEO of @CEPIvaccines, and @JeremyFarrar, the director of the @wellcometrust, believe the next pandemic could see a jab rolled out globally within 100 days, given the right forward planning and investment

The idea, being spearheaded by Cepi, is to create prototype vaccines for all the known pathogens with pandemic potential (roughly 25 viral families) in advance of an outbreak, and effectively stockpile them

Final human trials and manufacturing would be undertaken in parallel around the globe in the 100 days after a new pandemic pathogen was identified and confirmed

Cepi has outlined a $3.5 billion plan to kick-start the project, but the effort will require wider commitments and a lot more money

"It's at least a couple of tens of billions of dollars that will need to be spent to do this globally, over five to 10 years," says @DrRHatchett

If that sounds like a lot of money, think again. The new HS2 train link between London and Manchester is expected to cost in excess of £100bn

For perhaps less than half the price, the world could take the threat of another pandemic off the table for good
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…