Next pandemic is a matter of when, not if — WHO DG

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WHO chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus

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The COVID-19 pandemic was the most severe global health crisis in a century, killing at least 20 million people and wiping more than 10 trillion dollars from the global economy.

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WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said on Friday during an online news conference that the pandemic exposed and worsened weaknesses in global health security, while teaching the world painful lessons.

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He said countries must learn from those lessons because the next pandemic was not a question of if it would occur, but when.

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Ghebreyesus said the ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo showed that outbreaks could begin anywhere and threaten neighbouring countries and the wider world.

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He also cited the recent hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius as evidence that international threats require international responses.

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He said cooperation among countries and partners, particularly Spain, helped control and stop the hantavirus outbreak.

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Ghebreyesus said WHO had established 12 key initiatives since the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen global health security across six major areas.

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He said the initiatives included the Pandemic Fund with the World Bank and Universal Health and Preparedness Review to strengthen national preparedness capacities.

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According to him, WHO also established the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin to strengthen disease surveillance and early warning systems.

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He said efforts to improve equitable access to vaccines and other health tools included COVAX, the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme and the Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative.

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Ghebreyesus said WHO had also established the BioHub in Switzerland to promote international sharing of pathogen samples and strengthen global preparedness.

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He said the Global Health Emergency Corps was established to strengthen countries’ capacity to respond effectively to health emergencies.

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He noted that Member States adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations in 2024, strengthening the international legal framework for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

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He said countries also adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement in 2025, describing it as a landmark international legal instrument for strengthening global pandemic preparedness.

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The WHO boss said the remaining piece was the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, which countries were still negotiating to complete the pandemic preparedness framework.

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He expressed confidence that countries would overcome their remaining differences and reach agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system.

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He said reaching agreement was essential to enable countries to begin ratifying the Pandemic Agreement and allow it to enter into force.

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Ghebreyesus rejected misinformation portraying the Pandemic Agreement as a “power grab” that would transfer national sovereignty to WHO.

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He said the agreement was negotiated and adopted by sovereign countries acting in their own national interests, stressing that shared threats require shared responses.

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He said an approach in which every country acted alone would not work against pandemics, noting that the same principle underpinned the political declaration being discussed at the UN high-level meeting.

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According to him, the declaration contains commitments to concrete, measurable and urgent action to address existing gaps in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

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He thanked WHO Member States for their commitment and commended Armenia and Rwanda, as co-chairs, for leading negotiations on the political declaration.

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Ghebreyesus said WHO looked forward to the declaration’s adoption and would support countries in implementing the commitments they had made.

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(NAN)

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