In 2022 we will still feel the effects of Pandemic caused by covid-19. A lot of us have counted the numbers that are directly related to the virus — how many have? vaccination, infected, or hospitalized, how many are on ventilators or have died. But we tend to overlook the indirect effects of the virus — and the measures taken to prevent infection — on our most vulnerable citizens: children, adolescents. and women. We must now turn our attention to this “pandemic of darkness” if we are to have any hope of returning the world to normalcy.
Although women, children and young people are not more likely to get sick or die from coronavirus than others, they have experienced disproportionate disruption to many of the services they rely on, due to lockdown and diversion of critical resources.
According to the latest data”Global Health Report 50/50,” Published in 2021. But without acknowledging the likely impact of the crises on different genders and ages, we could make very wrong choices. This is because decision-makers, often still men, tend to forget about vulnerable people.
The close schools during the pandemic, for example, has caused educational gaps for many children and young people. Governments are working to keep education as open as possible, but many pay little attention to the fact that, for millions of children, school lunch is their only meal of the day. Many countries have not even begun to plan or even think about how they can reach those starving children as schools continue to be closed.
In 2022, we’ll also see the lingering effects of the shadow pandemic on the non-Covid global healthcare sector. While hospital systems continue to focus on vaccination and treatment of Covid-19, routine immunizations for many diseases (most of which have been forgotten in the Western world) and essential access to maternal health care services has been pushed aside. For example, as a result of the pandemic, 39% of the 124 countries surveyed reported a decrease in coverage of family planning services and 38% reported coverage of primary care services. maternal health care before birth and after birth decreased.
Even before the pandemic, our world failed to achieve some Sustainable development goals (established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and expected to be achieved in 2030) concerns women and children. Lockdowns and reallocation of resources in 2020 and 2021 have made the situation worse. And combined with other crises affecting much of the world – ongoing conflict, climate change, economic recession – they will lead to more people, including women and children, sick, malnourished and hungry.
As Covid-19 infection rates drop, thanks to successful vaccine deployment and absorption, in 2022 we will focus more on this shadow pandemic and its impacts. It shouldn’t be frustrating to be able to speak openly and loudly about the side effects of some of the policy measures we’ve put in place to deal with the virus. We will find that we have no choice but to allocate local and global resources, such as nutritious food and continuity of health services, to those in need. biggest. And we will all have to work to prevent further damage to these vulnerable groups and repair the damage done so far.
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