What if another variant of SARS-CoV-2 was to cause a hard to treat form of COVID-19? Or of another pathogen of concern was the emerge? (Or, perhaps more accurately, when it emerges at some future point).
How prepared are authorities for another pandemic? If a country is in the same situation as the U.K. then the answer appears that the nation is not very well prepared at all. This is the view expressed by the former head of the U.K.’s Vaccines Task Force.
Dame Kate Bingham has accused the U.K. Government of having “dismantled” structures put in place for dealing with future pandemics. There also appears to be a lack of leadership in terms of understanding the potential threats from viruses as well as having a competent person in place who could coordinate vaccine innovation, clinical development, plus the complexities of manufacturing at scale.
Bingham made these comments during a joint session of the Commons Science and Technology and Health and Social Care committees. To members of parliament, Bingham said (as quoted by Medscape): “Maybe there’s somebody secret out there that is doing that, but not as far as I can see.”
She added: “We’ve got the capability in the country, but it can’t be done in a vacuum. We need to have an expert leader to bring that together to keep us – or to try and get us back – into a better position.”
In contrast, Bingham sees the European Union as being in a stronger position and for “thinking about pandemic preparedness in a systematic, professional, effective way”. This is being enacted through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).
Bingham is unsure whether the U.K. government has dismantled its structures thorough poor planning or by design. She notes: “I’m beginning to think this is actually deliberate Government policy – not to invest, not to support the sector.”
Neil O’Brien, government minister for primary care and public health at the Department of Health and Social Care, has sought to explain that structures are in place. Meanwhile, Bingham’s criticisms have been supported by Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, who told the same committee that he had noticed “an absolutely dramatic reversion to what existed before the pandemic”.
