Why are we not learning from the past? - Ebola and COVID-19 responses
In this issue, I intend to reflect on the ongoing pandemic and whether or not public health practitioners have learned lessons from the COVID-19. In 2014, there was an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea resulting in the infection of 28,000 people and 11,310 deaths in the three countries. During that time, there was both solidarity and neglect from public health practitioners and the international community. We saw multiple countries supporting to control the outbreak, including the US National Guards, to help the West African countries. At the same time, because the outbreak was geographically localized, there was a minimal global collective response to the diseases. As a result, only a few companies invested in research and development (R&D) in support of novel diagnostics technologies, treatment, or vaccines. It was also obvious that the affected countries have very weak health systems which further exuber...