Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of how lessons from the Ebola epidemic can be used to help support countries during the covid-19 pandemic.

Responding to COVID-19 and Ebola present markedly different challenges. However, there are lessons from tackling Ebola that have relevance to other infectious disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. In particular, investment in research and development – especially in vaccines – has been vital in limiting the current Ebola epidemic. To tackle COVID-19, the UK has committed over £313 million into innovative research and development of vaccines, rapid diagnostics and promising therapeutics for coronavirus.

Other relevant lessons from combatting Ebola include the importance of:

(i) effective community engagement to promote local participation in a response

(ii) delivering a multi-sectoral response to address people’s broad needs

(iii) ensuring strong coordination across domestic, international and UN partners, and an empowered UN leadership from the onset.

We continue to apply what we have learned as we work to help end the pandemic and mitigate the health, humanitarian and economic impacts on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.