Echoes of an outbreak: What did Europe learn from the Covid pandemic?
Five years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, Europe is still taking stock of what's changed and what hasn't. This report and interactive map from A European Perspective* tracks how public service media across the continent are reflecting on the pandemic's impact - and asking: could new threats find Europe just as vulnerable?
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Inés Calzada, a sociologist at the Complutense University of Madrid specialising in the study of the welfare state, pointed out that the pandemic was a wake-up call on the "need for the state: people understood in a very immediate way how this institution can protect you".
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"The biggest post-pandemic risk of these five years is actually forgetfulness," Fernando Almeida, President of the Portuguese National Institute of Health, told RTP. "And we mustn't forget. SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) can already be treated as just another respiratory virus in circulation, but this could change; the world's attention is already turning to [the new strain of] H5N1, a new threat with pandemic potential."
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While he acknowledged that many of the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities remained, "the world has also learned many of the painful lessons the pandemic taught us and has taken significant steps to strengthen its defences."
"There's a lot that has improved because of the 2009 (H1N1) flu pandemic but also because of Covid," said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director. But she warned: "I think the world is not ready for another infectious disease massive outbreak or pandemic."
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