Three years after Argentina and most of the countries in the world were paralyzed by the Covid, the pandemic could end this year and the disease is on track to become a threat similar to seasonal flu. However, despite the tragedy that meant for the world, experts believe that humans have not learned their lesson and that we are “dangerously ill-prepared” for the next one pandemic
On March 20, 2020, three years ago, President Alberto Fernández announced on a national television channel that from that night until March 31, national isolation would be established by DNU, so that the population would stay at home and try to cut the chain of contagion of the coronavirus. The quarantine (whose shocking photos we reproduce in this note) extended beyond the set date and isolation, followed by mandatory distancing, would mark the lives of Argentines for a year.
The intelligence services of the United States continue without identifying the origin of the Covid
Since that March 20, the “quarantine” left images never seen in Argentine history, and that repeated the views first in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the cradle of the disease, and in Europe. The streets were emptied, isolation centers were created, abuses by state authorities who sought to restrict movement as much as possible were reported. Three years later, after almost 130,500 deaths and a total of 45.9 people infected with the virusArgentines learned to live with the Covid although the economic consequences of the quarantine continue to hit.
When does the pandemic end?
The WHO decreed the “public health emergency of international scope” on January 30, 2020when the world had fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside of China, but it was not until Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, called the situation a “pandemic” on March 11, that the world became aware the severity of the health threat.
Now, the organization said it considers that 2023 could be the year in which the end of the global emergency is declared “I am sure that sometime this year we can say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern … and as a pandemic,” Tedros said.
For the WHO, all the theories about the origin of COVID-19 are still on the table
Experts believe that Covid could soon be comparable to the threat of seasonal flu. “We are reaching the point where we can consider covid-19 in the same way that we consider the seasonal flu, that is, a health threat. A virus that will continue to cause deaths, but does not disrupt our society or our hospital systems” , highlighted the head of WHO emergency programs, Michael Ryan.
“Three years later, almost seven million deaths from covid-19 were reported, although we know the number is greater“, he said. “Despite our growing hopes of reaching the end of the pandemic, the question of how it started remains unanswered,” he said.
Skepticism persists about Covid data in China
“The next pandemic could be just around the corner”
The Red Cross is not so hopeful with the end of the current pandemic. All countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the international organization recently warned, anticipating that future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely weather-related disasters.
Despite the ‘brutal’ three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, robust preparation systems “fail severely”said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “All countries remain dangerously unprepared for future outbreaks,” she said, concluding that governments were no more prepared now than they were in 2019.
The long-term effects of Covid could be diminished by opting for healthier behaviors
Recalling the weather-related disasters and waves of disease outbreaks this century, of which Covid-19 was just one, the IFRC said it believes that in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic the world must prepare for “multiple hazards, not just one”, and recalled that societies only become truly resilient through planning for different types of disasters, as they can occur simultaneously.
“The Covid-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for the global community to prepare now for the next health crisis,” said the secretary-general of the FICR, Jagan Chapagain. “The next pandemic could be right around the corner; if the experience of Covid-19 won’t accelerate our steps towards preparedness, what will?”
Timeline: how the pandemic unfolded
From the first cases in China in late 2019 to the WHO’s declaration on Monday that it remains an international emergency:
December 2019: emerges in China
On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) receives an alert about a cluster of pneumonia cases “of unknown cause” in the city of Wuhan. A week later, a new coronavirus is identified. China confirms its first death in Wuhan on January 11 from a disease that will be named Covid-19. On January 23, Wuhan quarantines its 62 million people.
March 2020: “pandemic”
The virus spreads rapidly. As of March 6, more than 100,000 cases have been recorded worldwide. On March 11, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic and called on countries around the world to take extreme measures to curb the virus. Argentina declares a national quarantine on March 20.
Italy, the first European country to be severely affected, on March 12 imposes a blockade in the north that is later extended to the entire country. Spain (March 14) and France (March 17) put their populations under lockdown. Germany and Britain say people should avoid all social contact. The 27-nation European Union closes its external borders.
International Red Cross warned against “dangerous” lack of preparation for the next pandemic
April 2020: half the world in lockdown
Containment measures apply all over the world. On April 2, more than 3.9 billion people, half the world’s population, are forced or called to stay home. The threshold of one million cases is exceeded.
World stock markets crash and entire sectors of the world economy come to a standstill. Airlines, aircraft and car manufacturers, tourism and department stores suffer and lay off staff. Governments and central banks announce massive support measures.
June 2020: the US and Brazil become epicenters of the pandemic
The virus takes off in the United States and Brazil, with the two giants overtaking Europe to record the biggest tolls. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro dismisses Covid as a “little flu” while his US counterpart Donald Trump says the virus will disappear naturally. His management of the pandemic was highly criticized.
August 2020: anti-barbijos, anti-vax, anti-pass
In mid-2020, amid a new resurgence, several European countries made face coverings mandatory on public transport, in schools and shops, and on the street, sparking sometimes virulent anti-face covering demonstrations. A year later, opposition turns against vaccines, and the health passes that people in some countries are required to show to take trains and planes or use public services.
December 2020: Vaccines in record time
Vaccines are implemented in record time, and the first injections were administered at the end of 2020 in the US and Europe. The campaigns start slowly before picking up speed in 2021 in Western countries. But access to vaccines remains highly unequal, with only 24% of the population vaccinated in Africa versus 64% globally.
Argentina obtained its first vaccines on December 29, 2020, but mass vaccination of risk groups began in March 2021. Months later the “VIP vaccination” would be uncovered, an operation through which many people close to the government obtained privileges to be vaccinated before risk groups. The Minister of Health, Ginés González García, was the main defendant and had to resign.
“Hound of hell” is responsible for almost half of the Covid cases in Argentina
January 2021: covid origin investigation
A team of international experts from the WHO visits Wuhan in January 2021 to investigate the origins of the virus. Beijing later resists calls for further investigation on the ground. In July 2022, the WHO says that “all hypotheses remain on the table” as studies conclude that covid-19 first emerged in an animal market in Wuhan.
April 2021: Delta variant sweeps India
The highly contagious Delta variant causes heavy loss of life in April and May in India, which has the third highest death toll in the world. It then quickly spreads to the rest of the world, particularly Russia.
In late November, the heavily mutated Omicron strain, the most transmissible to date, emerges in South Africa, causing global panic. It spreads around the world in early 2022 causing record infections but with less severe symptoms.
It does not stop mutating: the WHO indicated that there are already more than 500 subvariants of Omicron
December 2022: China ends its controversial “Zero Covid” policy
Despite its relatively low death toll, China is counting the cost of President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy at a time when other countries have decided they can live with the virus.
Public anger boils over against prolonged restrictions, including lockdowns at the first hint of infections, leading to the largest national protests in decades. In response, the Chinese authorities decide on December 7 to radically ease the restrictions.
A surge in infections is rapidly following, along with medicine shortages, while hospitals and crematoriums across the country are overflowing with Covid patients and victims.
January 2023: the coronavirus remains an emergency
Three years after the WHO sounded the highest level of global alert on Covid-19, on January 30 it says the pandemic remains an international emergency.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the weekly death rate has risen since early December, while the lifting of restrictions in China has led to a surge in deaths. Globally, 6.8 million deaths from Covid-19 were reported to the WHO.
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