Have we forgotten about "Health" in the Pandemic? - Sam Tan, Flo Life Sciences

Sam Tan

CEO of Flo Life Sciences
Malaysia

Life is not just a pulse. I think this is something important to remember, while we are in the midst of this devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken nearly 5 million lives as of the last quarter of 2021. One of the important factors throughout all of this, is that I believe many of these deaths were preventable, as COVID-19 unfortunately affects those with poor health and co-morbidities disproportionately.

Life is not just a pulse. I think this is something important to remember, while we are in the midst of this devastating COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken nearly 5 million lives as of the last quarter of 2021. One of the important factors throughout all of this, is that I believe many of these deaths were preventable, as COVID-19 unfortunately affects those with poor health and co-morbidities disproportionately.

What the COVID-19 Pandemic has done, is highlight the importance of overall health, immunity, and living well, and how Public Health policy can affect those.

Even better than early intervention, is the absence of exacerbating factors, which unfortunately in first world countries are largely lifestyle related. COVID-19 while it has a high morbidity and mortality rate when combined with(especially Delta variant’s) transmissibility, appears to be very discriminatory when it comes to co-morbidities.

While we now have several relatively effective vaccines on the market, after several months of countries having high immunisation rates still experiencing waves of COVID, we are seeing that the same plays out in both the vaccinated and unvaccinated – if you have poor underlying health, you run the risk of complications with COVID-19.

My hope is that with this renewed awareness of the importance of overall Public Health, that Governments can put more effort in decoupling from the industry of treating diseases, and more investment and development in the management of preventable diseases.

Now, more than ever, we have the datasets, widespread availability of information, and the capabilities to rapidly develop, test, and monitor interventions (pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical) and it is with our sincere hope that the new age of computational biology, coupled with this interest will bring about a new dawn and chapter in the improvement of quality of life, and lifespans of the human civilization.

More important that surviving COVID-19 (and the Pandemic) – is to lead healthier, fuller, and better lives after.