Scotland must not be complacent preparing for future pandemics, MSPs told

The Scottish Government must avoid “complacency” in global pandemic preparedness as the risk from Covid-19 subsides, a Holyrood committee has heard.

Professor Andrew Morris, chair of the standing committee on pandemic preparedness, told the Scottish Parliament’s Covid Recovery Committee that measures to prevent a future pandemic must be taken with “urgency”.

Mr Morris presented the group’s interim report on future planning which included recommendations such as the creation of a public health intelligence and scientific body to build on response capabilities.

He said global pandemics remained one of the highest risks to world governments on a continual basis.

He told MSPs: “What I think there is a risk of currently is of complacency. We’re seeing Covid subside a little although we are likely to see another surge in the winter months and with flu there is risk of a twindemic.

“But there is a risk that we turn the world’s attention away from the risk and that we don’t do justice to pandemic preparedness.

“Just to be clear, I think we need to take action now while we remember how awful this pandemic has been and feel the urgency of trying to stop the next one.

“And also, we shouldn’t assume the next one will look exactly like Covid. It could be deadly and more infectious and it might be designed by humans because biosecurity is a big risk.

“So, in terms of how we set ourselves up, it is about this interdisciplinarity and one of the benefits of the Covid pandemic is how we have integrated behavioural science into the biomedical sciences.

“And in the early days of the pandemic, we were completely dependent on so-called non-pharmaceutical interventions which is the things we know: physical distancing, handwashing, isolation.”

Later in the committee, Deputy First Minister John Swinney addressed concerns over balancing the need for pandemic preparedness and tackling current issues in Scotland.

Mr Swinney who is also Covid Recovery Minister, said a “careful judgement” would be needed.

He said: “Nobody would thank us, given the experiences we’ve had between 2020 and 2022, if our level of pandemic preparedness was not adequate for the challenge.”

“A global pandemic was one of the top risks in every annual risk assessment the Government has ever produced. The question is to what extent are you prepared for it?

“There are certain things we will be doing operationally of a routine level that are now stronger than our provision was pre-pandemic, so PPE provision and biosecurity measures in that category. There will be surveillance levels that will be stronger than they were in the past.

“Now, if all that is done and we don’t have a pandemic, we could be exposed to criticism for spending public money on stuff that wasn’t going to happen.

“Alternatively, people could say, ‘well that is actually a reasonable assessment of the risk that society faces and the Government is right to prepare on that basis’ and that is the type of approach that I would like to see us planning for – making sure that we’re prepared but also that we have the capacity to increase our footprint should it be necessary.”