PREPARE FOR NEW PANDEMICS – RED CROSS
THE International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has released its 2022 World Disasters Report, warning governments to prepare for new pandemics.
It said that the Covid-19 pandemic was considered the “biggest disaster in living memory by almost any measure,” with 6.5 million deaths reported in less than three years.
“Crucially, many countries had not invested enough in preparedness at the local level and were not able to leverage the local preparedness that did exist,” read the report released in the Philippines on Thursday.
Gopal Mukherjee, IFRC Philippines program coordinator, said that there was a lot of confusion on how to approach the virus in the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recent report recommended steps on how to approach the next pandemic through three key steps: trust, equity and local action.
Among the recommendations were community ownership of emergency preparedness plans, active listening and community engagements, and access to services and education through community health systems.It also urged the distribution of pandemic response products through local actors, more flexible, predictable humanitarian funding, and community confidence and interest in pandemic response products.
Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon said that the PRC has always anticipated disasters and emergencies by mobilizing volunteers across the country, including doctors, first aiders and logistics.
“What is important is the principle of being closer is better. People down there, you have to tell them that they are the ones who should be in control . ... We try to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s . ... Definitely, you cannot stop natural disasters from happening, but you can soften them,” Gordon said in a news conference after the event.