Editor's note: Since the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese government has mounted an all-out campaign to contain the virus. Thanks to efforts and sacrifice, the number of new cases is starting to decline. How bad is the COVID-19 outbreak compared to previous pandemics in history, and how could the world help countries with fragile health care systems? Kee Park, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and also a consultant for the World Health Organization, shared his views with CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.  

CGTN: How bad is the COVID-19 outbreak compared to previous pandemics in history?

Kee: If you compare the experience with, let's say, SARS, which happened also in Asia, clearly there are a lot more people infected, confirmed cases of the COVID-19, than SARS. 

And it seems like it's more contagious because more people are infected. But if you look at the case fatality rate, which, I must say, we don't really know the current real case fatality rate until we have sort of been over the hump, but as best as we can tell, it's not nearly as fatal as SARS. SARS was in the almost 10-percent range. 

I think the COVID-19 may be two to three percent. It's just slightly higher than seasonal flu. So it's slightly more deadly than seasonal flu, but not nearly as deadly as SARS. But it seems like it's much more contagious. But we'll see an end to this obviously, all these epidemics tend to come to an end over time.

CGTN: How could the international community help countries with fragile health care systems stop the spread of the COVID-19?

When the WHO declared the COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, they were more concerned about countries with fragile health systems. This is where the virus can really take off. And this is where you will see the most fatalities.

There are two issues. One is the immediate international cooperation and response, and this should surpass any other current barriers in cooperation.

For instance, North Korea (DPRK) needs help right now, and they've asked for help. And the current UN sanctions regime prevents it from… It delays humanitarian supplies because of the case-by-case exemption process that's needed. That kind of process is not helpful in a situation of public health emergency. 

We need to put those things aside and cooperate and send supplies as soon as we can to North Korea (DPRK) so they can prepare for a possible outbreak. So there should be an immediate response right away and international cooperation. Remember the enemy is not each other, the enemy is this virus.

The other thing is the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining, when it's not raining. 

So when we get over this epidemic, we should really talk about how the global health community, the global governance, all the world should come together and strengthen health systems in these fragile countries, in the fragile health systems in these low-income countries. 

It's in everybody's interest to see a strong health system everywhere. This is what will prevent the spread of epidemics in the future, and then quickly control it.

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