COVID-19 and Global Human Health Resources

Abstract

The unprecedented global shutdown due to the pandemic of COVID-19 is exposing public health system weakness globally. In COVID-19, we are facing a virus to which we are immunologically naive, and for which it is complicated to determine an accurate case fatality rate. In this moment of unprecedented crisis, health-care workers, the equipment they need to do their work and a coordinated international response have become the front line in coping with the pandemic. As countries struggle to "flatten the curve" of the rate of infection, it is becoming clear that we need to support front line health-care staff by reorganizing work processes so we do not expose vulnerable older and health-compromised workers at this time of acute health crisis.