[BMJ Editorials] Response to the emerging novel coronavirus outbreak

BMJ Editorials, 31 January 2020

Ilona Kickbusch, Gabriel Leung

Highlights

• Need new governance instruments to supplement the international health regulations that can respond to scale, speed and connectivity in agile ways as well as new financing instruments that support all affected countries. Above all, the world finally needs total political commitment to pandemic preparedness.
• Geopolitical distrust and tensions make it difficult to cooperate and build trust during a major outbreak, and some social media content contributes to fear and misinformation or disinformation. Chinese people abroad are facing discrimination because people fear infection. 
• A key factor is how political tensions between the local, provincial and national governments will play out in the long run as responses — especially questions around the start of the outbreak — are assessed and blame distributed.

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