THAT ‘C’ WORD AGAIN AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT?

There is no definitive answer yet to how far the virus will spread or just how deadly it will be. A recent article in the Washington Post States that some epidemiology experts think that the coronavirus impact will be similar in scale to the 1957 influenza pandemic, so called Asian flu, that resulted in more than one million deaths worldwide and made a quarter of a billion people sick.

SO WHAT NEXT?

First point is that there is every possibility the world will in the future experience a similar situation – coronavirus after all does follow in the wake of recent viruses such as Ebola (more localised in Sub Saharan Africa) and SARs but taking a longer look back over history we can see strong evidence of humans and viruses being at war for a long time.

• The Black Death, 1346-1353, also known as the Great Plague and the Pestilence, killed more than 20 million people in Europe, at that time nearly a third of the continent’s population.
• Going back even further there was the plague that killed 30 to 50 million people from 541-750AD in the Eastern Roman Empire. Overall, it is estimated to have brought death to the door of around half the world’s population – 50 to 70 million deaths.
• Coming back to more contemporary times, there is HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. Often cited as the deadliest virus it may surprise readers to learn that since the since this Pandemic started in the early 1980s, 32 million people have died from it and 75 million people infected.
• A decade or so prior to the appearance of HIV, THE Hong Kong flue pandemic of 1968-69 was responsible for approximately one million deaths worldwide.

The lesson is clear – expect more to come and governments, industry representative bodies and businesses should be more alive to this possibility and put a greater effort into preparing for the worst.

It is quite surprising in this context that when looking across the range of port sector representative bodies – national and regional – there is a marked lack of practical advice as to what to do to minimise the coronavirus impact.

There are some excellent sources of advice – for example the British Ports Association – but this is more the exception than the rule.

Accordingly, the thought arises, is there a case for some sort of new Standard to be introduced covering preventative measures and knowledge pooling on a global basis?

This may not prevent the inevitable but it would undoubtedly play a major part in being better prepared for a ‘fight’ such as the current one.