The coronavirus pandemic is like a black hole, consuming global health resources and the concerted efforts of countless medical professionals around the globe. It’s threatening progress against other killer diseases, such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. In the UK, it has had a significant impact on charity-funded medical research, not to mention primary care or cancer treatments. The list is long.
The outbreak has huge ramifications for the future of healthcare, medical research budgets and the focus of funding. “What makes this pandemic unprecedented is not the virus, but the response to it, which is mostly driven by fear and panic that overestimates and overreacts,” says Ade Adeyemi, who heads up the global health fellowship at Chatham House.
“This is causing enormous harm and I think there will be a self-correction in early-2021. The medical community, from fear of losing all their funding to COVID-19, will start contextualising the pandemic and giving a more balanced analysis.”