Covid declared a pandemic two years ago. Health experts warn it’s

LONDON — With war raging between Russia and Ukraine, the world’s battle against the coronavirus has been largely sidelined and the second anniversary of Covid-19 being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization could easily pass us by.

Covid was, and still is, a seismic event that has affected the lives of millions of people, causing heartache for those that lost loved ones and anxiety for millions of people who lost livelihoods as the pandemic caused widespread lockdowns and a massive hit to businesses both big and small.

Of course, the long-lasting impact on many individuals’ mental and physical health is yet to be fully measured or appreciated, with the effects of the virus — whether it be the malingering Covid symptoms or “long Covid” many people are experiencing, or its impact on the brain and body — still being investigated by scientists.

Two years ago, when the WHO declared on March 11, 2020, that Covid “could be characterized as a pandemic” little did we know that we would now have recorded over 452 million cases to date, and over 6 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, which continues to keep a tally on the number of infections and fatalities.

The numbers are so immense it’s easy to forget that each of those deaths has been a tragic loss for someone, or some family.

While the human cost and emotional losses caused by the pandemic are incalculable, it’s worth celebrating the achievements made during the pandemic with an abundance of optimism on the day that the first preliminary clinical trial results emerged, on Nov. 9 2020 from Pfizer, indicating that its Covid vaccine developed with German biotech BioNTech in record-breaking time, was highly effective against Covid.

Signaling a way out of the pandemic at last, stock markets soared and the vaccine maker hailed the discovery as a “great day for science and humanity.” The happy announcement was followed by similar results from Moderna, AstraZeneca and others.

Since then, a number of global manufacturers have produced millions of doses of Covid vaccines with the world’s most fortunate having received not only their initial, standard two-dose immunization but a booster too. For the world’s poorest a Covid vaccine, like other forms of basic health care, remains elusive and many experts say this should be a stain on the rich West’s conscience.

While 63.4% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with over 10 billion doses administered worldwide, only 13.7% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data, another source of invaluable data during the pandemic.