COVID-19: A thread
International Law in Times of a Pandemic
The deadly covid-19 was declared as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 and we have come a long way since then. Perhaps the most horrible and dangerous virus had started grappling hundreds and thousands of lives before the numbers came up soaring to millions, causing havoc across countries and an immeasurable amount of grief to handle.
The International Health Regulations have been in force since July 11 2016, and the sole purpose of the IHR in it’s original form is “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade”. What this means is that any global pandemic should be prevented and controlled in a manner which compensates with the public health risks for that nation without any unnecessary hoarding of supply chains by international market; in simpler language, saving lives first, then business. Despite the increasing challenges, the World Health Organization continues to support and strengthen the COVID-19 response in countries with support from donors and partners. The extended help from various groups and firms have surely assured the possibility of a bright light at the end of this dark and grievous tunnel. WHO and the African Development Bank recently delivered a donation of COVID-19 supplies to Zambia worth one approximately US$1 million to support the country’s pandemic response. The donation included personal protective equipment, ventilators, laboratory reagents and test kits to help the nation battle the new constraint of the emerging virus.
Countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe are empowering themselves to demand and voice their opinions for better health needs and infrastructure by organizing communities where every voice can be heard and solutions can be sorted out by the interference of local authorities. Mongolia is bringing health services to remote communities by using mobile health technologies to reach nomadic populations, migrants and unregistered people. The deadly virus had exposed the reality of health workforce of the world, not as a humiliating one but as an opening for many nations to foresee and empower themselves and an alarm bell for the governments to aide and properly fill up all the potholes with fresh reforms and inch one step closer for making this curve straight.
Despite the innumerable measures taken by WHO, the somewhat ineffectiveness or should we say, the unpreparedness reflected by delayed supplies or the incorrect death figures by countries show that the foundation for future havoc has to be created here and now, with full planning as to how it will unfold with the lessons being learned from the COVID-19 pandemic , to enforce and amend existing laws by shaping it in the accordance to meet the needs of every person and to minimize the death of loved ones. While covid-19 dominated the airwaves for the better part of 2020, one ought not forget other crises, some of which have no doubt been aggravated by the pandemic. The spread of this virus could not be blamed on any one region of a country. The blaming facade can be put to rest for sometime as the support regime should satnd top and foremost. Despite this being said and encouraged by many efforts, we still see a lot of people suppressing each other or blaming the bad outcomes to the opposition which is a great way to turn down reporters but is is the right hing to do? Definitely not. Given that the covid-19 is the most devastating pandemic of all times, instaed of demeaning each other in verbal abuse, ending the blame game and the laying groundwork for more effectively handling future outbreaks is what that is needed to be done.
At the least, all we can do is support each other as a person, every one of us is or has been suffered enough to keep alive the hope of unleashing the bright light of hope escalating pure warmth into us.
