The Best Strategy of Preparedness to Face Next Pandemic Crisis Similar to COVID-19 : The Critical Role of Medical Ventilators and New Technology in Reducing Fatality Rates

Since a future pandemic similar to COVID-19 is not a question of whether will happen, but when it will happen. The impact of next pandemic will be determined by how well-prepared countries are when it occurs at any time with little warning, and how countries timely respond. In this context, a main question is which is the best strategy of preparedness for unforeseen pandemic crisis? The study confronts this question here by developing an exploratory research of how the technology plays a critical role to cope with pandemic crisis. A main technology in the presence of respiratory disorders generated by unknown infectious diseases is medical ventilation. The goal of this study is a comparative analysis between countries with a high and low number of medical ventilators to assess the effects on fatality rate in the initial phase of pandemic crisis, before the vaccination campaign and other innovative drugs to cope with COVID-19. Preliminary analysis on a small sample reveals that countries having a high number of medical ventilators per 100,000 inhabitants have in general a fatality rate lower than countries with low average number of medical ventilators (1.44% vs. 2.46% of fatality rate in December 2020, respectively). These findings has critical implications for crisis management: the best strategy of preparedness for next pandemic threats is based on high levels of R&D investments in healthcare sector to support drug discovery process, new infrastructures and skilled human resources, and especially investing in high equipment of new medical technology that can reduce negative effects of emerging infectious disease, when specific drugs lack (and that need months and years for development)