Equity was a key focus in New Zealand's Covid-19 response and it appears to be a global focus for future pandemics. Photo / NZME
Equity was a key focus in New Zealand's Covid-19 response and it appears to be a global focus for future pandemics. Photo / NZME
Covid-19 Response Minister and Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall has recently returned from a two-week international trip to discuss a range of topics challenging global health systems. Chief among them was Covid-19 and how the world can combat infectious diseases in the future. Verrall sat down with the NZ Herald to discuss what she learned in her travels and what part New Zealand will play in fighting the next Covid-19.
As Covid-19 becomes part of daily life, health officials across the globe are racing to shore up defences for the next pandemic that will inevitably arrive.
New Zealand will be among those pushing for more collaborative international health infrastructure, supporting the World Health Organisation’s plan to form something akin to a pandemic treaty or convention - an instrument to establish effective “pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” mechanisms.
Earlier this month, Covid-19 Response Minister and Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall was at the WHO’s base in Geneva, Switzerland, and was privy to discussions on what a “pandemic treaty” might look like and what it might achieve.
“There is clearly a need to have better rules around how we respond to a pandemic,” Verrall told the NZ Herald.
“Everything from early sharing of information and the requirements of states to do that, through to how we manage sequences of organisms, the equitable distribution of technology - all of those issues might be captured by a pandemic instrument, what form that takes is currently being debated.
“New Zealand‘s fully supportive of the work and I think eager to see that the treaty promotes global equity for pandemic response and that relates to how close we’ve been to the Pacific in the pandemic and making sure that the needs of small and developing countries aren’t left out.”
Dr Ayesha Verrall is supportive of a "pandemic treaty" that will ensure the world is better prepared for another outbreak. Photo / NZME
The timeline to confirm such a treaty indicates its necessity. A conceptual draft of the treaty - or accord, as it’s described by the WHO - is expected to be discussed in December before a progress report is presented to the World Health Assembly in May next year and then outcomes submitted for consideration at the same event in 2024.
Verrall said the treaty’s focus on equity was in line with New Zealand’s own response to Covid-19, something she felt set us apart from the rest of the world.
“What happened in New Zealand with the standing-up of community providers and them really coming to the fore as a way of serving underserved communities - Māori and Pasifika - those discussions didn’t seem to be so prominent in some of the countries I visited so I think that’s an experience New Zealand has to contribute in international fora.”
Verrall’s two-week journey represented her first extensive overseas assignment since her transition from academic to politician.
She made good use of her time abroad, travelling to Singapore, France, Italy and Switzerland to meet and speak with some of the most influential health officials on the planet.
While her visit to Singapore also included discussions on tobacco control, the management of Covid-19 took priority given the country’s strong infection prevention measures that drew comparisons with New Zealand’s recently abandoned public health restrictions.
Meeting Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung was a special privilege. Like New Zealand, Singapore is reforming its health system to focus more on preventive care. They have some very innovative approaches including using rewards and gamification to encourage physical activity! 🇳🇿 🇸🇬 pic.twitter.com/hYv8YcHTdO
Verrall, who met with Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, referenced the country’s investment in infectious disease control that placed it in good stead to cope with future outbreaks.
“The question we’re all grappling with is ‘how do we prepare for the next pandemic’ and I think that’s really interesting, the different ways the different countries are taking that.
“For a long time, [Singapore] had a real strength in the clinical management of patients with infectious diseases because they do that all the time, they’ve got a state-of-the-art infectious diseases unit in their hospital.
“In European countries, [they’ve had a] really big investment in science and at quite a high scale in terms of building domestic vaccine production capacity and I guess the vaccine development was the real star of the scientific response to the pandemic globally.”
Standing in for Health Minister Andrew Little, Verrall gave a presentation at the Global Mental Health Summit in Rome, reflecting on the commonalities and differences countries experienced with respect to the mental health strain incidents like pandemics and conflicts inflicted, particularly on young people.
Covid-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall travelled overseas to discuss Covid-19 and other health topics with many different officials. Photo / Mark Mitchell
She also earned face-time with Italy’s health officials who were among the first outside Wuhan, China to encounter the virus.
“Those leaders had been through a lot and I was pleased to be able to personally thank them for the evidence that the Italian physicians shared early in the pandemic, that was some of the first clinical data we had.
“I can remember being a doctor reading reports from the Italian intensive care doctors which really was the first information that helped me imagine what it would be like should it come here.”
A day in Paris allowed a meeting with France’s Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau before Verrall headed east to Strasbourg, the official seat of the European Parliament, where members were keen to learn from New Zealand’s Covid-19 response.
In Geneva, Verrall made a key appearance at the World Cancer Congress before again talking pandemics with WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“[The trip was] an opportunity to hear from someone who’s facing similar decisions to those that I face, so sometimes it’s gratifying to see that others are working through exactly the same tough issues that I am,” Verrall said.
Great to meet WHO DG @DrTedros yesterday to discuss the state of the Covid-19 pandemic. NZ supports strong architecture for future pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. I also shared NZ’s vision for a Smokefree future. pic.twitter.com/fMtgZLVi7P
Among the lessons from her two weeks abroad was an affirmation of Verrall’s advocacy for growing scientific investment in New Zealand.
Verrall cited the impact rheumatic fever and Meningococcal B had had on the country, indicating the need for homegrown solutions.
“Those types of investments [overseas] won’t be able to be made in New Zealand, but we do need to be able to solve our own problems when we have future infectious disease threats and I think that we have made a series of investments that will hugely strengthen our ability to do so.”
While she contemplated the next pandemic, Verrall’s immediate focus remained on Covid-19 as modellers struggle to predict when the next wave might occur.
Verrall referenced modelling from Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa that hadn’t predicted a dramatic surge in case numbers was imminent, but acknowledged that the assessment was made without including the possibility of new Omicron subvariants reaching our shores.
Last week, MedSafe received an application from Pfizer for provisional approval of its latest vaccine targeting Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
While she was unsure when Medsafe would release its decision, Verrall expected New Zealand’s future use of new Covid vaccines would be structured with vulnerable populations in mind, instead of rolling them out to the entire population.
“Provided evidence continued to bear that out, [the] purpose of vaccination remains to prevent severe disease and that we continue to see those risk groups being the ones who we’ve identified.
“If we saw that change, if there was stronger evidence for the vaccination of younger people, then we’d have to respond to that.”
Despite the unknowns, Verrall was confident Kiwis could be reassured New Zealand’s position to respond to another surge was equal to much of the world.
“Other countries are like us, putting time into these issues around preparedness but also lowering the burdens we have put on everyday people as part of the response, so I think we can be reassured we’re on the right track.”
