The panel was established in July 2020 by the World Health Organisation’s Director-General. It is charged with understanding the chronology of the pandemic, national and international actions and responses to alerts and transmission warnings, distilling lessons and making evidence-based recommendations.

The panel has since its first meeting in September 2020 been collecting and analysing evidence to build upon the lessons from previous epidemics and pandemics; establishing an authoritative chronology of how COVID-19 became a global pandemic; understanding the wider health and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic and identifying gaps in the international system that need to be filled to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response.

The panel has largely concluded the analysis phase, and is currently in the stage of developing and refining recommendations. These recommendations aim to stop outbreaks before they become pandemics; and should that not be possible, ensure a pandemic does not cause a global socio-economic crisis.

Addressing the panel, President Ramaphosa said: “While the pandemic has highlighted the value of partnership, it has also demonstrated the damaging effects of unilateral action and unequal access to resources. We cannot hope to overcome this pandemic for as long as richer countries have most of the world’s supply of vaccines to the exclusion and the detriment of poorer countries.

As we prepare for future pandemics, we need to accelerate efforts to realise Universal Health Coverage. We need to ensure that vaccines and other life-saving treatments are considered a public good. “For this reason, earlier this year, the African Union resolved to support the call for a temporary TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation for COVID-19.

Such a waiver will enable more countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and treatments to make them more accessible and affordable for poorer countries. Issue 474 | 6 May 2021 “This is about saving human lives. Not sometime in the future, but right now. We look forward to engaging further on the recommendations of the panel, which will enable all countries to strengthen pandemic preparedness. For more than a year, we have fought this global pandemic together as an international community. “Let us now work together, with even greater resolve and focus, to not only prepare for the next pandemic but to build a fairer, healthier and more equitable world.” ∙∙.