Next pandemic a matter of when, not if — WHO DG
by Adeola Balogun · The Eagle OnlineThe 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.
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.
He said countries must learn from those lessons because the next pandemic was not a question of if it would occur, but when.
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.
He also cited the recent hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius as evidence that international threats require international responses.
He said cooperation among countries and partners, particularly Spain, helped control and stop the hantavirus outbreak.
Ghebreyesus said WHO had established 12 key initiatives since the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen global health security across six major areas.
He said the initiatives included the Pandemic Fund with the World Bank and Universal Health and Preparedness Review to strengthen national preparedness capacities.
According to him, WHO also established the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin to strengthen disease surveillance and early warning systems.
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.
Ghebreyesus said WHO had also established the BioHub in Switzerland to promote international sharing of pathogen samples and strengthen global preparedness.
He said the Global Health Emergency Corps was established to strengthen countries’ capacity to respond effectively to health emergencies.
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.
He said countries also adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement in 2025, describing it as a landmark international legal instrument for strengthening global pandemic preparedness.
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.
He expressed confidence that countries would overcome their remaining differences and reach agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system.
He said reaching agreement was essential to enable countries to begin ratifying the Pandemic Agreement and allow it to enter into force.
Ghebreyesus rejected misinformation portraying the Pandemic Agreement as a “power grab” that would transfer national sovereignty to WHO.
He said the agreement was negotiated and adopted by sovereign countries acting in their own national interests, stressing that shared threats require shared responses.
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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- Next pandemic a matter of when, not if — WHO DG
According to him, the declaration contains commitments to concrete, measurable and urgent action to address existing gaps in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
He thanked WHO Member States for their commitment and commended Armenia and Rwanda, as co-chairs, for leading negotiations on the political declaration.
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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