How to More than 380 multidisciplinary experts from 110 countries agree on how to end Covid-19

A study published in 'Nature' and led by researchers from IS Global in Barcelona agrees on more than 50 measures to end the pandemic. Failures in communication, the management of health systems, vaccination, prevention, treatment, and evidence of pandemic inequalities. These are the points analyzed by a report published by Nature on the mistakes that have been made —and continue to be made— by governments and health authorities regarding the management of Covid-19. The document presents a compendium of recommendations to ensure that SARS CoV-2 is no longer considered "a threat to public health". "This study is a major multidisciplinary effort and a call to action to lay a solid foundation for dealing with large-scale infectious disease outbreaks," Jeffrey Lazarus said over the phone. An epidemiologist at the Institute of Global Health (IS Global) in Barcelona, ​​he has been in charge of directing and coordinating the research, which has had the participation of 386 experts from 112 countries, among which the Spanish presence stands out, with names such as José Luis Jiménez, Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado; and José María Martín-Moreno, WHO adviser for Europe. They are joined by epidemiologists, public health experts, infectious disease doctors, cardiologists, and even lawyers and philosophers. "We have had people from many specialties because this work deals with how society is organized in general, how we work," continues the expert, who proudly highlights the "unique" nature of the study. "I don't know of any similar that deals with the pandemic."["Long and barely manageable winters": Europe warns about Covid scenarios in 10 years] After more than a year of work, the team has managed to reach a consensus with all the observations on the management of the pandemic and the recommendations that they want to send to all the agents involved in it. The result is 41 declarations and 57 guidelines, which present different degrees of agreement and disagreement between the parties. The Decalogue of Recommendations Ten has the unanimous support of the experts. These could be considered as the dialogue to stop the pandemic. In short, they call for collaboration between all sectors and actors in society, the development of better public health messages, the adoption of a vaccine-plus approach, which adds other effective measures to this prevention method; curbing social and health inequalities between countries and communities, attend to changes in the population's behavior regarding the pandemic, develop vaccines that provide lasting protection against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, combat false information with clear messages and free of unnecessary scientific jargon, multi-ministerial coordination, equipping low- and middle-income countries with technology to develop affordable vaccines, tests and treatments, and promoting the development of new therapies for all stages of Covid-19. "With this study, we demonstrate the value of collaborating between experts from various specialties and countries, which is exactly what has been lacking in many places, be it the WHO, the United States, or Spain," explains the epidemiologist, illustrating his words with the Spanish case "Fernando Simón, whom we all know now, is an epidemiologist, but he was not the most capable of communicating according to what decisions. For example, in Denmark, it was the Minister of Education who came out to explain why schools were not opening and the Minister of the Interior to talk about why people couldn't change their municipality". In addition to a lack of involvement and/or collaboration between the different parts of the Government, Lazarus also lacked clear and consensual information reaching the entire population and cites as an example the campaigns carried out by the Tax Agency to reach all houses. "I always have letters in my mailbox from them, but nothing has come to me from the pandemic. Neither my neighbors nor anyone I know, and with things like this we lose opportunities."[The 'massive errors' of governments in the management of Covid led to 17M 'preventable deaths'] The epidemiologist exposes the failures of our country because that is where the pandemic has lived, but, as the work itself affirms, these are errors that have occurred in many countries. Not in all, but yes in a majority. Thus, the document harshly reflects the high number of deaths that the pandemic has left and that could have been avoided. According to official figures, around 6.5 million have been produced worldwide. However, a scientific article prepared by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an entity created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, denounces that the real number could triple that figure: almost 18 million deaths. A delicate phase, On the other hand, the researchers recall that the virus continues to accumulate mutations that can improve its ability to evade previous immunity, in addition to the problem of prolonged Covid, an issue that, in a previous conversation with EL ESPAÑOL, Lazarus observed as very worrying. "There are many people who are no longer afraid of the virus, but this problem can affect anyone." The WHO itself warned last October that persistent Covid is "devastating the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of people around the world." Currently, there is almost no scientific evidence on the best way to treat this disorder, which affects one in eight individuals. Announcements like this only confirm one of the study's complaints: "SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate among us, although some governments have turned the page." Words seem to fall like a jug of cold water on announcements such as the one from the United States, whose president, Joe Biden, declared the pandemic "finished" last September. [Flu, RSV and the new variants of Covid: the 'triplegia' that threatens Spain this winter] "All of us who have participated ask the authorities to read us and pay attention to us", cries Lazarus, who warns: "We are entering a delicate phase, at a very insecure moment, and we do not know what will happen in a month"The epidemiologist Joan Carla, recently spoke about the situation of uncertainty in Spain. "Every day we have between 10 and 20 deaths from Covid," he denounced in EL ESPAÑOL. Although he admitted that the number of hospitalizations seems to have given a respite, he warned that the weather has still been good and that the arrival of the cold can change the tables for the worse. Measures "for all" Iquique Bass, another of the study's co-authors and a Global researcher on malaria, viral and bacterial infections, precisely emphasizes the need to do something soon to stop Covid. These measures can be implemented in months, not years," he says. In the package of recommendations, there are some as basics as giving correct guidelines to the population on how to ventilate a room, something that seems obvious, but which, once again, it failed: "I saw the news from schools in which the students were wearing their coats in class because the windows were open all the time. But they only had to ventilate a fraction of every hour!", illustrates Lazarus, who with this little anecdote realizes the lack of information that has had the population. The epidemiologist says goodbye to his talk in the hope that the message will get through to those who have to get through: "Here we have something for everyone," he summarizes a little between laughs. He becomes more serious when he again stresses that this is a problem that we cannot ignore. "Whoever says there is no need to worry is not basing himself on the evidence," he says. In fact, there are already voices that have baptized the panorama that the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 leave us together with the flu and the respiratory syncopal virus as 'triplegia'. "You have to prepare for what is to come and with our document, we have shown that there are many things that we can do well," concludes Lazarus.