Hogan Bassey, chief innovation officer and founder of healthcare company LivFul, explains why the industry needs to learn from Covid-19 in order to fight other viruses and diseases.
Mosquito
2020 has been an unprecedented period of upheaval and learning for those of us working in infectious diseases. For many of us with specialities – in my case, malaria – there has been the question of how to maintain progress in our fields while respecting the impact and requirement for resources demanded by a once in a lifetime pandemic.
For territories that rely on aid from the US and Europe, there is the issue of countries focussing on supporting their own resources rather than sharing the products that are available. Global demand for PPE has skyrocketed, and ultimately the first country to submit a purchase order to the manufacturer is the one that claims the equipment. For middle to lower income countries with already troubled economies, this makes for a very difficult situation.