How the Lessons of Previous Epidemics Helped Successful Countries Fight Covid-19

Covid-19 caught the West by surprise, but the legacy of Ebola, MERS, and SARS meant that several Asian and African nations had systems in place to mitigate the severity of the pandemic. Experts explain what Hong Kong, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Taiwan learnt and how they have made a difference.

East Asia’s response to covid-19 seems to have been exceptional so far. This is—at least partly—a result of the many lessons learnt and innovations derived from the region’s decades-long experience with outbreaks of novel, directly transmissible respiratory pathogens. These include the 1957 “Asian” and 1968 “Hong Kong” influenza pandemics, the first occasion of A(H5N1) influenza jumping the species barrier from birds into humans in 1997, and the A(H7N9) in 2013 around the Yangtze River Delta. The 2002-03 SARS epidemic left the most indelible mark.

The outbreak of MERS in 2012 resulted in hundreds of deaths and spread to 27 countries, causing worldwide concern of a potential pandemic. Its emergence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia triggered transformational changes in the country’s healthcare system. This proved critical in launching a prompt response to Covid-19.

In response to the 2003 SARS outbreak, the Singapore government built a multi-ministry taskforce to coordinate actions, centralise efforts, and disseminate information about the epidemic. Similar taskforces were set up for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2016 Zika outbreak, and most recently for Covid-19.