Fighting covid-19 is both easier and more difficult than the 1918 pandemic, says WHO
Officials of the World Health Organization meet on August 21 in Geneva.
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It is both easier and more difficult to combat the pandemic of coronavirus what it was like to fight the influenza pandemic in 1918, officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) this Friday.
“With more connectivity, the virus has a better chance of spreading,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing. “But at the same time, we also have the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it,” he added.
“We have a disadvantage – globalization, proximity, connectivity – but the advantage of better technology,” he said.
The 1918 flu pandemic took just under two years to pass, Tedros said. He added that he expects this pandemic to end in “less than two years.”
After that, the H1N1 strain that killed tens of millions of people joined the mix of regular and seasonal flu viruses.
“It took three waves to infect most susceptible individuals, and then it probably settled into a seasonal pattern,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. “Very often” a pandemic virus establishes itself in a seasonal pattern over time, he explained.
“But this virus is not showing a wave pattern of contagion,” Ryan said.
Rather than passing in waves that offer respite, the coronavirus can be suppressed with strict measures, but it rebounds quickly, Ryan said. “Clearly, when the disease is not under control, it goes back up,” he said.
But the 1918 flu passed and this pandemic will also pass, he said.
“Human beings are resistant. We are a resilient species and we will overcome it, ”Ryan said.
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