Photo: Reuters
As the Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) report notes, outbreaks of dangerous infections are becoming more frequent and the consequences are becoming more devastating – both for health systems and the global economy.
The coronavirus pandemic officially lasted from March 2020 through May 2023. According to the WHO, the confirmed death toll was nearly 6.9 million. However, WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said that the real losses were much higher – about 20 million lives.
The GPMB report emphasizes: despite the experience of COVID-19, the world is once again on an “unfavorable trajectory.” Experts point to rising geopolitical tensions, environmental crises and unequal access to vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. All of this reduces countries’ preparedness for new threats.
According to RBC, the most massive pandemic in history was “Spanish Flu”, which lasted from 1918 to 1920. The total number of deaths from “Hispaniola” ranged from 17.4 million to 100 million, according to various studies. “Spanish” surpassed the First World War in the number of victims: combat losses in the war amounted to about 10 million people.
After the Spanish Flu, humanity faced other pandemics, but none of them reached a comparable scale in terms of casualties.
