Abstract

Current coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented and the global response to a great extent, has demonstrated how unprepared we were, despite the past experiences of earlier ‘flu’ pandemics. Now we are in the third year of the pandemic, with the fifth COVID surge rising in many countries. The pandemic started, with the emergence of Alpha variant from Wuhan, China and has continued to evolve into more and more transmissible variants, Beta, Delta and currently, Omicron. We warned you but you did not listen, says a report titled “A World at Risk” published in September 2019, by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB). When the new coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China, the virus’s entire genetic makeup, or ‘genome’ was published online within days. Advances in gene sequencing has allowed scientists, to trace and monitor the spread of the virus worldwide and the evolving nature of newer variants. The viral outbreak was followed by immediate surge of academic publications, in less than five months more than 15,000 publications appeared and exceeded 80,000 by the end of 2020. The media reported every milestone, in the spread of the virus worldwide, as well as about the vaccines and drug development activities. Unfortunately, the spread of false and misleading information by some sources, drowned credible information. The magnitude of development that has taken place and the speed with which mRNA vaccines and antiviral drugs were developed during this crisis, is historical and remarkable. Pharmaceutical companies achieved “things we never thought could be done”, to combat the pandemic quickly. In just over a year, due to the biggest vaccination campaign in history, more than 12 billion doses of vaccines have been administered across 184 countries. On a global scale, 73 countries have given at least one dose, to 75% of the population. With 2.8 billion people worldwide, still not vaccinated against COVID-19, the health experts worry that we are prematurely moving away from the pandemic. We are at war with a killer virus, which has caused unprecedented economic crisis. Some people who have been infected with the coronavirus, have reported their experience of long-term effects and lingering COVID-19 symptoms, known as post COVID conditions (PCC), or long COVID, or as the experts refer, post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). We have not seen the end of COVID-19 epidemic, as we still have new surges of this virus in various geographical regions of the world. In a large study of 47,780 patients discharged following COVID-19, almost a third were admitted again to the hospitals and a similar proportion were diagnosed with respiratory diseases, according to studies published in the Lancet and British Medical Journal (BMJ). The National Health Services of UK officially launched a long COVID service, to support recovery in October of 2020. Post COVID Care Centers (PCCC) are opening across the country, bringing together multidisciplinary teams, across a broad range of specialties. Long Covid Services in Europe is highlighted by the 6.6-billion pounds funding it has received. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged member countries, to prioritize rehabilitation for the medium and long-term consequences of COVID-19 and to gather information on “long Covid: more systematically. The COVID-19 pandemic was caused by $16 trillion virus and the cost of long COVID is estimated at $2.6 trillion. These numbers are nothing but estimates. No one knows, the true economic burden of such diseases.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Novel Virus

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