Covid‑19 has proved you can’t trust politicians to prepare for global crisis — but there’s a better way
In 2010, as the swine flu began to spread from the Americas to Europe, the French Minister of Health Roselyne Bachelot made a decision that would end her political career. Born into a family of health care professionals and possessing a doctorate in pharmacy, Bachelot was keenly aware of the dangers a pandemic could bring and was determined to be ready.
Preparing for the worst, she ordered 1.7 billion face masks and millions of doses of the vaccine to ensure France’s health care system was well supplied. But six months later, the epidemic had peaked. With only a fraction of the PPE stockpile used, the rest were thrown away. Hundreds of millions of euros were wasted, and Bachelot’s political career never recovered.
Yet despite disposing of millions of masks only years before, as the Covid‑19 outbreak began earlier this year France’s strategic stockpile of PPE held less than a fifth of its target. While PPE has an expiry date and cannot be permanently stockpiled, going from an abundance of supplies to a severe shortage just before the worst pandemic in a century speaks volumes about humanity’s ability to plan for the worst.
Of course, France was far from alone in being unprepared. With demand spiking and supply chains breaking down, a global PPE shortage emerged which is likely to have caused thousands of deaths.
Yet despite experts clearly advising that stockpiles of PPE were permanently required to help mitigate any potential pandemics, the world was unprepared.
Sadly, none of this story is surprising. Governments are always looking to cut funding, and reducing a stockpile most people have never heard of is easier than increasing taxes or reducing concessions to individuals and businesses. But while most of the general public were blissfully unaware of the dangers of a pandemic, politicians had entire departments advising them of the huge potential risks. But they still didn’t listen.
When the Covid‑19 outbreak has finally passed, most governments will pay significantly more attention to pandemic preparedness than they have for decades. But a range of other potential global crises exist that are likely to continue being ignored. However, with our newfound awareness of the risks of global crisis, it is possible for us push for action that could help mitigate such a catastrophe.
And the first step is to remove the responsibility for planning these contingencies away from politicians, who all too often find it hard to think beyond the next election cycle.
Instead, these powers should rest with independent government authorities specifically created to ensure countries are prepared for the unexpected. The role of these organisations would be to consider possible global crises and develop mitigation strategies to keep their nation’s population safe, including preparing for sudden shortages of food, water, energy, shipping, and housing. Planning for these scenarios would help give clear guidance on what nations should do to be prepared, and put pressure on politicians to provide adequate funding.
While the effects of climate change would clearly need to be considered, arguably the most important crisis humanity should prepare for is a major meteor strike or volcanic eruption, events which are thought to have caused entire empires to collapse. One terrifying possibility is for the resulting dust clouds to darken the skies, making growing crops difficult across large sections of the globe. If this were to occur now, we would be entirely unprepared. To help us be ready, crisis response organisations could examine using advanced agricultural innovations such as indoor vertical farms and creating food using electricity instead of photosynthesis, thereby helping ensure crops could be grown under such conditions.
Of course, there’s an obvious precedent for taking important powers away from politicians — interest rates.
Most developed countries have long since made their Reserve Banks independent, as many politicians can’t be trusted not to manipulate the economy for their own needs, especially in the lead up to an election. While not perfect, the system has worked well and helped tame inflation across most countries.
Now, with most nation’s budgets under enormous strain because of the pandemic, creating independent authorities will help stop resources being stripped from our crisis readiness. Maybe next time, instead of running short of basic supplies because of shortsightedness, we can save thousands of lives.
