EXPERT COMMENT
World leaders must remember the pandemic has not only disrupted but also revealed the world's collective weakness to defending against infectious disease threats.
Although existing health system vulnerabilities were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, several of the obstacles to fair, healthy, and prosperous societies are a result of structural and persistent inequalities both within and between countries.
Because of the urgent need to provide COVID-19 health services, the treatment and prevention efforts for several non-communicable diseases - which kill more than 40 million people each year - have been negatively affected.
This ongoing inability to undertake routine health services alongside outbreak response surge capacity reflects the gaps in pandemic preparedness which have long been identified - and ignored.
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