The permanent CDC is still nine months and a federal election away. Luminaries of public health want to see more commitment and more lessons learned.
Five years on from the WHO declaration of the covid global pandemic, Australia is still struggling to be ready for the next pandemic, with “a long way to go”, say experts.
Despite Australia “doing well” through covid in comparison with many other countries, that was no reason to be complacent, said Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia.
“It’s no surprise that five years on many Australians want to move on,” he said.
“Although overall Australia did well, we can’t afford to forget the challenges we faced and lessons we learnt.
“Many fear we are less, not more prepared for a similar outbreak should it occur now.”
As of 23 February 2025, Australia has had 25,236 confirmed deaths from covid. There have been 7.09 million deaths globally, including 1.22 million in the US alone, and 232,000 in the UK.
Professor Allen Cheng, professor of infectious diseases at Monash University, said Australia should be better prepared for the next pandemic.
“In the lead up to covid, we had SARS, swine flu and MERS. Now we have avian influenza, Mpox, and Japanese encephalitis,” he said.
“It’s a matter of when, not if, the next health emergency will occur.
“It is vital that we move to a permanent and properly resourced Centre for Disease Control as soon as possible.”
The establishment of an Australian CDC was a significant step forward, but the permanent iteration of the CDC remains nine months away.
Professors Slevin and Cheng, as well Professor Joseph Doyle, president of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases, want to see further commitment from both sides of politics to the CDC.
“As a nation, we have failed to fully capitalise on lessons learned during the last pandemic and build institutions to lead public health responses in future,” said Professor Doyle.
“We need to ensure the interim CDC transforms into a well-resourced, transparently governed, expert and evidence-based permanent CDC to prepare us for emerging threats and ongoing public health challenges that occur every day.”
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Professor Slevin added:
“The interim CDC is the first step towards the roadmap outlined in the COVID-19 Response Inquiry report.
“Already some things are better. Its new OneHealth division is working closely across governments to monitor avian influenza and they have an ambitious plan for surveillance data.
“But it will take a lot more to strengthen systems to respond more coherently to the next pandemic.
“We are very concerned that in the past five years we have seen both federal and state governments move resources away from vital public health services that we relied on during the pandemic’s peak.
“Across the country, decision-makers are putting more money into acute care and hospitals and away from initiatives that protect the health and wellbeing of our communities.
“Without a well-resourced public and preventive health sector, who will we call on when the next outbreak occurs?”
Infectious diseases experts Professor Peter Doherty and Professor Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, writing in The Conversation, said the sharing of data as well as biological samples across jurisdictions remained challenging.
“For example, there are currently restrictions in place that limit sharing of virus strains between states and territories,” they said.
“But when a new strain emerges, many laboratories need access to it to evaluate their testing capabilities.
“At the start of a pandemic, we need to understand everything about the new virus and at great speed. This needs systems in place in ‘peace time’, ready to be mobilised in ‘war time’,” said Professors Lewin and Doherty.
Five years on, Australia now has the capacity to access mRNA vaccines immediately thanks to Moderna and CSL setting up headquarters and manufacturing facilities in the country.
“But what if we can’t make an effective vaccine to fight a future pandemic? This is a situation we must be prepared for, as we’ve seen with infections such as HIV, where after 40 years of trying and billions of dollars spent, we still don’t have a vaccine,” they wrote.
“In such a situation, we will need to rely on antiviral drugs. The way we currently make antiviral drugs takes significantly longer to develop than vaccines.
“And although we have some broad spectrum antiviral drugs, the most potent antivirals are very specific – meaning one drug treats only one type of virus.
“To be better prepared for future pandemics, many groups around the world are working on developing a library of drugs that work against whole families of viruses that could cause the next pandemic.”
Today the Australian Human Rights Commission released a new report, Collateral Damage which found that federal, state and territory governments did not adequately consider or protect people’s human rights when implementing pandemic response measures.
“The pandemic response saved lives, but it also came at a significant cost, with some Australians feeling they were overlooked in the nation’s push to contain covid,” said Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, who co-authored the report.
“In our research, we heard devastating stories of severe economic hardship, families unable to say goodbye to loved ones, women trapped in violent households, and communities left isolated due to blanket policies that failed to consider local realities. These experiences should never be ignored or repeated.”
The report is centred on the personal stories of more than 5000 Australians following a national survey, community consultations and an online portal.
“This report shows that response measures do not operate in a vacuum,” said Ms Finlay.
“The full human impact needs to be understood so we can be better prepared when disaster strikes again, whether it be a pandemic, bushfire, flood or any other emergency.
“We are seeing this right now as communities continue to navigate the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Its impacts, as well as those in previous natural disasters, will inform the next stage of our project, as we look to ensure all future emergency responses have human rights at their core.”
The report recommended that all levels of government adopt an Emergency Response Framework, anchored by seven key principles:
- human rights as a priority, embedded in decision-making from the outset;
- meaningful consultation with all communities, especially vulnerable groups, as a one-size-fits-all approach is ineffective;
- proportionate responses that are constantly reviewed and adapted;
- balancing risk with compassion, ensuring timely and accessible exemptions;
- tailored communication, addressing diverse needs and combating misinformation;
- empowering and supporting local communities to help create more effective and considered plans; and,
- planning beyond the crisis to avoid abrupt withdrawal of critical supports.
“This isn’t about who is to blame, but how we can do better. We cannot wait for the next crisis to learn these lessons,” Ms Finlay said.
“We must rebuild trust, strike a balance between individual freedoms and public health, and place human rights at the heart of emergency planning.”