The Coronavirus Will Change The Face Of Disaster Management

As the death toll due to coronavirus continues to increase, one certainty has emerged: the world was ill-equipped to deal with a catastrophe of this nature. However, this pandemic has provided individuals and communities across the globe a new found appreciation for the intricacies of disaster management.

One such aspect that has gained tremendous respect due to the pandemic is efforts by larger organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The World Health Organization, both of which have been crucial in collating and controlling the information related to the spread and management of the disease. The CDC has established a live data tracker that reports the number of cases and deaths in the United States, sorted by region and state so that communities can better ascertain and track the progress of the disease. This is in addition to the numerous other resources the organization is providing, including information on determining symptoms, general health tips, and forecasting services with regards to spread. In a similar effort, the now famous COVID-19 Dashboard by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has become one of the gold standards for monitoring real time data about the disease worldwide. It provides valuable information including disease trends, testing capacity, and cumulative confirmed cases across the globe. In the fight to stop the spread of the virus, resources like these that provide up-to-date, real time models of mortality and spread have been invaluable. Other large organizations have focused their efforts on the ground, especially those by healthcare systems. Some hospitals have transformed entire buildings and campuses into COVID care centers, especially in virus epicenters such as New York, which now has a death toll of nearly 17,000 people.

Indeed, only during these crises do people truly understand the value and scope of disaster management infrastructure.  This was especially highlighted in the aftermath of the catastrophe created by Hurricane Katrina, which claimed nearly 1,800 lives and decimated the Gulf Coast. Though the response to Katrina elicited significant controversy, federal agencies, academics, and communities still look at that event as an unfortunate yet significant case study to learn from and improve disaster management practices. The coronavirus pandemic will likely be studied in the same manner in decades to come.

In an uncannily accurate note written by Bill Gates in 2015, he expressed what was then received as a controversial thought: “the world is simply not prepared to deal with a disease—an especially virulent flu, for example—that infects large numbers of people very quickly. Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic. But I believe we can prevent such a catastrophe by building a global warning and response system for epidemics. It would apply the kind of planning that goes into national defense—systems for recruiting, training, and equipping health workers; investments in new tools; etc.—to the effort to prevent and contain outbreaks.”

This coherently summarizes the disruption that will need to occur due to COVID-19. The world must and will start paying attention to critical infrastructure that communities require— factors such as increasing access to equitable housing, creating models to alleviate food and resource poverty, and making available preventative and acute healthcare services. This pandemic will also shed light to the importance of investing in evidence based medical research, promoting vaccinations for preventable diseases, and developing disease containment and mitigation strategies. More resources and support must also be given to organizations that are invested in training healthcare professionals to specifically address such disasters, such as the American College of Emergency Physicians, which recognizes specific disaster management fellowship programs. These are the resources and professionals that are ultimately first-in-line for disaster response, and it is high time that the world recognizes their value.  

Indeed, the global response against COVID-19 has mobilized large-scaled organizations, multidisciplinary professionals, and individuals from all sectors of society in mounting a response against this unprecedented catastrophe. This united front has been providing much needed healthcare, financial, housing, and life-sustaining needs to those that most require it. However, the common factor among all of these organizations and respondents: no one was ready for a global crisis of this scale. Therefore, the unfortunate effects of coronavirus must inspire and empower change in a useful way that helps the world prepare for future iterations of similar disasters. The one thing that is certain about pandemics, viruses, disasters, and conflict is that they will inevitably repeat. What is modifiable however, is how societies learn from them and mount their next response.