The “COVID-19: Updates from Singapore” weekly webinar series is a forum for leading clinicians, scientists, public health officials and policy makers to share insights from their fields of study. The 23rd and penultimate webinar session was held on Thursday, 10 September at 7pm.
Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme at the World Health Organisation (WHO), was the guest speaker this session. Since taking on the mantle of Executive Director in 2019, Dr Ryan has been instrumental in coordinating and implementing WHO’s multinational response to high-impact epidemic disease threats such as Ebola and SARS. Dr Michael Ryan describes his work in the wide-ranging mandate of coordinating disasters, conflicts and pandemic outbreak response, as well as emergency preparedness to be at the centre of a spider’s web. With help from governments and various institutions from around the world, the ultimate goal is to set standards, direct responses to emergencies and coordinate preparations for emergencies.
Even with all the disasters that the world has experienced, not many of these lessons learnt have been duly applied in preparation for the next disaster or epidemic. Dr Ryan acknowledged that some lessons have been implemented by certain countries. He commended Singapore and South Korea which have taken learning points from their experiences with SARS and MERS and internalised them within the Government, in science and in the communities, investing in suitable infrastructure and workforce to prepare for future responses.
Even as the pandemic has forced us to re-look how we are managing our planet and our economies, Dr Ryan highlights that we have overall failed in managing and mitigating the risks that have come with the benefits of running prosperous economies and countries. The failure stems from under-investing in the dynamic capacities to respond to emergencies such as decision-making architecture and risk communications.
Dr Ryan observed that public health systems in industrialised countries have become more of a policy framework or a policy platform, where public health interventions is not a priority. Asian countries have a much higher sense of alertness to viruses, especially respiratory viruses. Governments in Asian countries are expected to be ready with solutions and interventions, but to other countries, these measures can be seen as an intrusion. Asian countries have invested and retained core elements of the traditional public health interventions while developing more sophisticated scientific systems and beefing up the training of contact tracers. Dr Ryan described how good emergency preparedness in a pandemic is akin to running a marathon without prior preparations—no matter the amount of will or good intentions, it will only result in a poor performance if preparations are not robust. In carrying out post-mortem exercises to find out the loopholes in preparations, he cautioned that countries should not engage in polemics and lose sight of the purpose of conducting these exercises which is to learn lessons in real-time.
When speaking of the impact of social cohesion in an epidemic, Dr Ryan shared that in societies where the individual is seen as the more important unit of society as opposed to the community, the focus on freedom and independence dulls the sense of collective responsibility required within the community and society. He shared that societies that have a high level of social cohesion and a high level of social consensus have absorbed advice more quickly, with sustained implementation of that advice. Dr Ryan advised countries to understand and look realistically at where they are in the pandemic response and having a fundamental understanding of the condition of the public health architecture and where it needs to be strengthened. They need to come up with a strategy and review it every two weeks, while having the humility to admit mistakes and come up with an alternative, but it has become harder to do since governments are constantly in the scrutiny of the public. This is relevant in the careful monitoring of potential COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that they are proven to have the highest levels of quality assurance before formally administering it to the public.
Dr Ryan concluded that it is possible to live with this virus without the vaccine and production of a vaccine should not be haphazardly rushed. While applauding the continuation of current efforts to share virus biodata, he called for the world to lay down their political weapons and come together in collaboration, connectivity and consultation in order to find a stable and predictable mechanism where viruses and virus sequences are shared in perpetuity, especially during a high-threat epidemic, to ensure a brighter and better future for public health.
WATCH: COVID-19 Updates from Singapore: Webinar 23 | Dr Michael Ryan
The “COVID-19: Updates from Singapore” webinar series is approaching its final installment of 24 consecutive weekly presentations. In the final episode happening on 17 Sep 2020, a panel of world-renowned experts leading off with the World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will join to share their perspectives on the current state and future of the COVID-19 pandemic along with messages of encouragement, hope, and solidarity.
Join Associate Professor David Allen and Professor Dale Fisher as they engage their guests, and share their insights as we transit to a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Don’t miss the final episode, register now at https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/cet/webinar/.
