Six years after a pandemic killed millions, shuttered economies, and exposed the fault lines of every health system on earth, the world is quietly going back to sleep.

The signs are everywhere. Pandemic preparedness budgets are being trimmed. Vaccines are being demonized and diminished. The political urgency that briefly made public health a front-page priority has dissolved into something polite experts call “pandemic fatigue”.

A new report from the Disease Control Priorities project, published this year by the World Bank, phrases the problem with blunt clarity: “The global response to pandemic threats remains inadequate, failing to translate the lessons of COVID-19 into sustained investment and preparedness.” The editors warn that the old pattern of panic during a crisis and neglect once it passes “persists, amplified by pandemic fatigue, denialism, misinformation, resistance to public health measures, and limited international cooperation.” (more…)