The WHO warned that the coronavirus would not be “the last …

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the coronavirus pandemic “will not be the last” and stressed that progress in health will be insufficient if there are no changes regarding global warming and animal welfare.

The Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned of “the danger of short-term behavior”, in a video recorded for the commemoration this Sunday of the first International Epidemic Preparedness Day.

“History shows us that this will not be the last pandemic,” said the director who argued that good lessons must be learned from the coronavirus. And he added, “For a long time the world acted in the midst of a cycle of panic and denial.”

In this sense, the leader of the WHO regretted the way in which nations act in these situations: “We spend money when the crisis hits, but when it’s over we forget and do nothing to prevent the next one. This is the danger of short-term behavior“.

The first annual report on global health emergency preparedness, published in September 2019, warned against humanity’s poor preparation for major pandemics, a few months before the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

“The pandemic has revealed the close links between the health of people, animals and the planet “Tedros said. “All efforts to improve health systems will be insufficient if they are not accompanied by a critique of the relationship between humans and animals, as well as the existential threat posed by climate change, which is transforming the Earth. in one place. more difficult to live with, ”he concluded.