Staying focused on 'One Health' to prevent the next pandemic

Author: van Nieuwkoop M     In:  World Bank Blogs

Back in early 2020, when the world was discovering the deadly impact of COVID-19, I turned to World Bank colleagues who worked on previous disease outbreaks to see what lessons we might learn and apply this time round. They univocally warned me of two risks: one, underestimating the cost of pandemics; two, falling back into a familiar cycle of panic and neglect, before any meaningful action can be taken to address the root causes of the crisis. Our conversations led me to conclude that it was high time that we invest in healthy food systems for a safer world, since so many emerging diseases arise at the nexus of humans, livestock and wildlife, with disastrous consequences.