Preparing for the next pandemic requires a transparent, science-driven approach, supported by clear and accessible communication.
This is what came out of a health-care advocacy event in Sandton on Friday, held to encourage ongoing pandemic preparedness in South Africa.
The event marked the launch of the “Pandemic Preparedness SA” campaign where a panel discussion involving scientists engaged on the response to the pandemic, looking at how the lessons learnt can help prepare for the next one.
Dr Tim Tucker, chief executive of specialist health-care services provider SEAD, noted that from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the world found themselves inadequately prepared.
“We learnt that the world is unprepared for these kinds of stressors and we are part of that global environment and as such we need to look and learn from Covid in what areas we functioned well in and which areas we struggled in,” Tucker said.
The chief executive of vaccine manufacturer The Biovac Institute, Dr Morena Makhoana said that while the pandemic had many catastrophic elements, South Africans were fortunate that the virus had not caused more severe outcomes.
“We need to take the learnings from this pandemic and put them into school education programmes and basic health care to affect the virus outcomes for the better,” Makhoana said.
The audience further heard that preparing for the next pandemic will require a transparent, science-driven approach, supported by clear, easily accessible communication.
“We need to build on the successes of collaboration and successes of science to ensure that those are translated into public health structures and systems, human capacity and the ability to respond,” Tucker said.
Professor Koleka Mlisana, executive manager of academic affairs, research and quality assurance at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), encouraged ongoing disease surveillance.
“Seek and ye shall find,” she said. “We need to continue funding genomic and other types of surveillance systems, and to ensure that the data that is collected has integrity, so that it can inform policy decisions.”
CSIR group executive: advanced chemistry and life sciences division, Dr Rachel Kerina Chikwamba, emphasised that research funding was key to ensuring better health outcomes.
“Science is an investment,” said Chikwamba. “Continued support for innovation and development research is a strategic imperative. This includes building the infrastructure to turn research into products that can deal with any future pandemic.”
Mlisana added that it was of fundamental importance that the country’s health system be strengthened and that communication be consistent
“Consistency and transparency are key, if we are to win the trust of the public and influence their behaviour for the better,” she said.
The editor-in-chief of the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, Mia Malan, however emphasised that accurate information was completely useless unless people understood it.
“That is probably the most difficult thing to do, to translate difficult scientific things into a version that people can understand,” Malan said.
Speakers were unanimous about the need for scientists to be more assertive, to communicate consistently in media spaces, and to tailor their messaging in a way that was understandable to everyday people.
“Scientists must come out from the science journals,” said the panel moderator, Victor Kgomoeswana, of the University of Limpopo.
Chikwamba added that scientists tend to be introverted and focused on the work they do. “We think the integrity of our work will speak for itself. I think the times we live in call for integrity but they also call for us to go that extra mile to make sure that the right information is communicated,” she said.
@Chulu_M