On April 17, the Old Session Hall of the Senate of Spain hosted the conference organized by Fundamed about the learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic and improvement proposals for reconstruction and resilience in preparation for possible future health crises.
It was after this meeting that the book was born ‘Pandemics, Preparation and response to future challenges’, which has been presented in the Senate this June 26. The participants in the day completed the visions of how preparation for a future pandemic should be faced. Scientific societies, senators, representatives of the Ministry and companies were the ones who analyzed and explained their proposals and reflections.
Has been Santiago de Quirogapresident of Fundamed, who presented the book to the president of the Upper House, Peter Rollan. Quiroga has referred to preparation for future pandemics as something that “could not be absent from the attention of the Senate”, an institution that stands as a “speaker in the face of a real threat.”
A roadmap with “full stop”
For his part, Rollán thanked Fundamed for its work by launching a “roadmap” that ends -“although it is not a final point, but we want it to be a full stop,” Rollán has pointed out- in a book that delivered to the Senate library so that it is available to both senators and researchers.
Thus, the president of the Senate has highlighted that it will become “a excellent reference manual“. And, he explained, it is a document that includes the debate of the day of April 17 where “what was done well was analyzed, but also what were the decisions or non-decisions that could have achieved a situation of excellence.” .
In this sense, Rollán has pointed out that it was thanks to the aforementioned day in which the question of whether there will be a new pandemic was answered: there will be. For this reason, he has valued the “commitment of Fundamed and the participating entities for having taken a step and having formed a knowledge hub for analyze, predict, prevent and have the capacity to respond about an issue that is not simple, but that is vital to analyze.”
For his part, Santiago de Quiroga has pointed out the need to put this issue in the political focus, which should be a priority. “We know what must be done? The answer is yes. Are we doing what they committed to (in reference to the health subcommittee created in the Congress of Deputies in 2020) and was it urgent then? The answer is a resounding no,” he declared.
In this way, with the presentation and delivery of the book ‘Pandemics, Preparation and response to future challenges’, a “renewed interest is born and where the hopes of the approach to our preparation to face future pandemics”, as indicated by the president of Fundamed.
“This book contains the proposals and reflections of many of those responsible who can take measures, such as parliamentarians and representatives of the Ministry of Health, but let us not forget that the first line of battle against the pandemic also reminds us that the time to prepare is now“Quiroga concluded.
