WHO Assessed COVID-19 Pandemic After 6 Months & Warned About Response Fatigue

By
Zhi Hao
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Six months after sounding the international alarm, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning.

The Coronavirus pandemic is likely to be “lengthy” in nature, which could mean response fatigue on the part of entire nations.

Image: Giphy

Now, at this point, you may find yourself wondering about a lot of things.

“What the hell is response fatigue?”

“Isn’t it rather obvious that it’s going to be a lengthy wait?”

“What’s for dinner?”

Well, in answer, we present the following article.

A semblance of a piece that seeks to address the aforementioned notions…

Or at least, try to offer an insight into it.

WHO Assessed COVID-19 Pandemic After 6 Months & Warned About Response Fatigue

According to Channel News Asia, the World Health Organisation has warned that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to be “lengthy”, and that there is a risk of “response fatigue” considering the socio-economic pressure on countries.

Basically, it’s like people love going out to eat and restaurants love having people come in; but when a lockdown (the best way to deal with Covid-19) happens, people become unhappy because they can’t go out and restaurants have to close down, leading to more people being unable to go out.

The consensus was reached by the emergency committee in an evaluation meeting on 31 July, six months after they first sounded the international alarm. The meeting was also the fourth time that the panel gathered over the current crisis.

“WHO continues to assess the global risk level of COVID-19 to be very high,” the organisation said after the meeting.

To date, the novel coronavirus has reportedly killed a minimum of 680,000 people and infected at least 17.6 million.

On the back of such statistics and other factors, the panel, which comprises 17 members and 12 advisors, unanimously agreed to leave the epidemic’s Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) status as it is.

The near six-hour gathering was conducted at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, with several participants reportedly joining via video-link.

The committee will meet up again within the next three months.

Response Fatigue

The committee has since called for the WHO to supplement realistic and sensible advice on COVID-19 management “to reduce the risk of response fatigue in the context of socio-economic pressures”.

Response fatigue is commonly defined as a well-documented phenomenon wherein a party begins to feel tired of a specific task (or restriction) and starts to ease in terms of quality provided.

Since the outbreak, numerous countries around the world have been forced to implement strict lockdowns to control the spread of the epidemic, causing entire economies to take a steep nosedive.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also deemed the pandemic’s effects to be long-lasting, and warned countries to set up their health systems in preparation of not only the new coronavirus but other potential disease outbreaks as well.

“It’s sobering to think that six months ago, when you recommended I declare a PHEIC, there were less than 100 cases and no deaths outside China,” he said on Friday.

“The pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.”

Well, we’ve had our suspicions, but it seems that we can be certain now:

Covid-19, as unwelcome as it is, looks set to become a mainstay in our lives.

Though hey, at the very least, we have stuff like a registered vaccine and a multitude of other positive aspects to keep our hopes alive. While circumstances might be dire right now…

One can rest assured that it will not last as long as you might think.

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]