With the corona vaccine, medical science responded unprecedentedly quickly to the latest global pandemic. But the solution only came when the virus had already spread everywhere. How can we better prevent the outbreak of future life-threatening diseases from now on? According to Frank Huisman, this much more essential question wrongly fades into the background.
Parliamentary investigation
In 2020, the world was shocked by a pandemic that stirred emotions. As in many other countries, healthcare in the Netherlands was severely tested and social life was restricted. Two years later the worst danger seemed to have passed. It was time to settle the score, but especially to look ahead. The House of Representatives decided to use its strongest tool for this: a parliamentary inquiry. The preparatory Temporary Committee on Corona (TCC) was sent out with two questions: where did administrators get their knowledge during the pandemic? And what have administrators paid little or no attention to, and how can this be improved in the future?
TCC
The TCC wanted to inform itself about as many dimensions of the corona pandemic as possible. The committee therefore wanted to pay attention not only to the biomedical aspects, but also to the social and humanities dimensions of the pandemic. The committee therefore invited me – as a medical historian – to shed light on the question of whether we can learn from the past, and if so, what. I think that is possible, but I also think that the TCC was sent out with the wrong questions.
Record pace
Of course, in times of crisis, it is of the utmost importance to act quickly and effectively to minimize damage to public health and the economy. In 2020 – after initial hesitation, which is a well-known historical pattern – action was taken impressively quickly and decisively. The virus’s genome was unraveled in record time by Chinese scientists and shared with colleagues around the world. Researchers were then able to start developing a vaccine, which became available at an unprecedented pace.
Impressive
All this was very impressive and unprecedented. But it involved acting during a crisis that had already presented itself. In fact, the House of Representatives moved from crisis to crisis with its questioning. In addition to acting quickly and effectively during a crisis, it seems equally important to prevent the next crisis. There is often a lack of policy aimed at this.
Short term thinking
Although it is conceivable that the horizons of many politicians do not extend beyond tomorrow’s newspaper and the next elections, a different rhythm applies to ecological patterns and pandemics. The same applies to pandemics as to climate change: it is completely insufficient to only focus on the short term and (thereby) move from crisis to crisis. Only long-term thinking – with an eye for global mutual dependencies – will bring a solution. In the interests of our posterity, it is of great importance that political-ideological differences are put aside and that action is guided by the ecological logic of our planet.
Global
Of course, decisive action must be taken during a crisis. But it is much better to try to prevent the next crisis. This requires rethinking, political courage and decisiveness in creating a sustainable and just global infrastructure. It goes without saying that – given the global interconnections – it is not up to one country or one government to solve these colossal problems.
Frank Huisman was a senior lecturer at the history department of Maastricht University and professor of the history of medicine at the Umc in Utrecht. He retired in July 2023.
Read the full piece BB20 of this week.
2023-10-29 05:01:47
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