The coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Ali Pate, says pandemics transform the world and that of COVID-19 is already underway.
Pate said this on Thursday in Abuja at the launch of a book titled ‘An Imperfect Storm’.
The book was written by Chikwe Ihekweazu, former director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), and his wife, Vivianne Ihekweazu.
According to Mr Pate, traditionally, pandemics have almost always resulted in transformation of societies.
“Right from the ancient Greek periods, pandemics resulted in major transformations. The Greeks suffered from it, the Romans suffered from it. The plague, thousands of years ago, resulted in transformations, HIV resulted in some transformation.
“Now we have experienced COVID, and it is transforming the world. It’s a one in a hundred year pandemic, and the transformation is already underway. We are emerging into a world of greater facility, economic upheavals, but also acceleration in encounters with new pathogens,” he added.
While citing cases of different pandemics that the world experienced from the 1990s to the present time, the minister said that pandemics are here to stay.
“What it tells us is that we are marching our way into a world where new pathogens are crossing over, and they encounter the next crisis. It could be anywhere for us to see, so it’s not if but when,” he noted.
The health minister, however, commended Mr Ihekweazu for his work in building NCDC and championing the containment of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
“It is going to be one of the significant hallmarks in our effort to respond when the next storm shows up,” he stated.
One of the authors, Mr Ihekweazu, said that it was important to strengthen health response in order to be able to handle pandemics when they come.
Citing an example with Nigeria’s handling of the Ebola virus in 2014, he said that the country, using various approaches was much sensitised to the emergence of the disease and had a good response to it.
However, it cost the nation a lot of harm.
“The harm it has cost us is that we spent the next five years celebrating our heroic Ebola response and so by the time I started at NCDC in 2016, there was nothing left because we believed we had done a great job. We had no national reference plan, so everything we had put together for the response was gone.
“In reflecting on how we emerged from this, I think the challenge for us, whether we have a good response or a bad response, it’s not to think we have nothing to worry about, it’s to continue.
“We have started and documented progress, but our collective challenge is to make sure that when the next one comes, and it will come, that the NCDC is not where it is today,” he explained.
The co-author, Ms Ihekweazu said the book was not just about sharing the story so others could learn about what they did at the time, but to also tell the story.
“Sharing that story is very important because it’s not just about how we responded or how others can learn what we do, but we have to learn to tell our stories,” she said.
The book, which is the authors’ personal narrative of Nigeria’s COVID-19 response, is aimed at supporting public sector leadership and all those participating in building institutions and organisations.
In attendance at the launch were the former secretary to the government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, former health minister Olrunnimbe Mamora, and Sani Aliyu, former national coordinator of the presidential task force on COVID-19.
Others were former Governors Kayode Fayemi, Ifeanyi Okowa and the NCDC