"The WHO and government's around the world have created policy to respond to outbreaks...,like coronavirus, based on the tenets of prevent, detect and respond - all rooted in epidemiological practice and very well evidence based.
But what they fail to take into account with this focus on this type of response is the direct and indirect impacts these outbreaks have on women."
- Dr Clare Wenham (listen to podcast here)
"The key point that needs to be emphasised here is that human to human transmission is not rare with these types of viruses."
- Dr Stephen L. Roberts
"We are seeing the mechanisms of global health security spring into action to respond to the Coronavirus; the problem is that after years of underinvestment we, as a global community, are still not prepared for a “big one”. Even strong heath systems may struggle, and where does that leave weak health systems across the global south?"
- Dr Clare Wenham
"I think the critical thing to remember here in relation to the SARS episode in 2002-2003, with what we've recently been witnessing with the Chinese government and several cities involved in the outbreak in China, is that many years have passed, we've had many advancements in surveillance and manay global advancements in information sharing have been made since then."
- Dr Stephen L. Roberts
"Unprecedented quarantines like we’ve seen in China need greater investigation. Firstly we saw many Wuhan citizens leave before it was in place, thereby not limiting infection. Secondly, such methods can be regressive, penalising the most marginalised; through limited access to transport, food and healthcare."
- Dr Clare Wenham
"With this outbreak, China has demonstrated itself to be more forthcoming with providing information regarding the outbreak of this new growth virus and in it's co-operation with global health authorities. But the larger question of whether China has handled this outbreak well, I think ultimately is a question we can only start to answer once the outbreak has been brought under control..."
- Dr Stephen L. Roberts
"We also need to remember this is not the only global health emergency occurring now - Ebola continues across DRC, as does a significant Measles outbreak in that country."
- Dr Clare Wenham
"The screening processes that are being used - this obviously depends on what diagnostic method we are referring to. There is a lot of focus, for example, on screening that's being done in airports around the world, there's been a lot of discussion and analysis of how this particular method of screening can be circumvented, for example by taking medications that lower fevers..."
- Dr Stephen L. Roberts
Protectionist policies designed to seal off a country from infection; by prohibiting travel, repatriating nationals or airport screening will only have limited effects. Due to global communication routes those who need to travel will find a route. Instead we need to invest in systems and front line healthcare workers to identify and treat cases if and when they emerge, using the range of infection control protocols we have at our disposal.
- Dr Clare Wenham