World largely unprepared if any new pandemic arises - Helen Clark

If a new pathogen emerged today, the world would be largely unprepared, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

The Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Annex [PABS] could not be agreed to in time for adoption at the next World Health Assembly.

It's an essential part of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, which aims to strengthen global prevention, preparedness, and response to future pandemics.

The agreement as a whole cannot proceed towards ratification, if the annex is not agreed to.

Clark, co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said it was a disappointing result.

Clark said some sticking points prevented the annex from going through.

"The huge issue is about equitable access to vaccines and to the technologies which develop vaccines. That's been the sticking point.

"As well, the developing countries have wanted an undertaking, that in return for honouring their obligations under the international health regulations to make information about a new pathogen available, they would then get the benefits of sharing that information from whatever new innovation comes along.

"It's stuck on this basic principle of equity, with at this point, developed countries not being prepared to concede enough on the equity side, to satisfy developing countries," she said.

Clark said, as a result, the world would be unprepared, if a new pathogen emerged.

"[I have] several concerns around the lack of preparedness now, one that, of course, vaccine misinformation and disinformation is rife, so that's a more difficult context to be implementing 101 public health measures in.

"Secondly, a lot of countries still have a lot of fiscal issues arising from having to spend their way through the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Then you have the issue of not enough international finance for developing countries for preparedness and for response, so there's so many issues and areas where we're not prepared."

Clark said co-ordination was key.

"Co-ordination is critical and it's needed... at the regional level as well as at the global level.

"There's a whole ecosystem, around vaccine development, procurement, distribution, financing, which needs to work, and we're not there yet."

Geopolitical conflicts were also having an impact on preparedness, she said.

"The key issue is the distrust between north and south. There's a very bad taste from the last pandemic where developing countries did not get a fair shot at getting the vaccines, developed countries gobbled up most of what was available, the production wasn't sufficient to then supply developing country populations.

"When some of us were beginning to get our boosters, health workers and some poor countries had never had as much as a single shot of a vaccine.

"There's a lot of resentment about this and a determination from the developing countries not to settle for something that will be inequitable in future," she said.

Clark said, while political leaders were dealing with immediate issues, they could not afford to neglect foreseeable risks.

"Right now, leaders are grappling with the cost of living, the spill-over impacts from the war on Iran, so pandemic preparation response is not top of mind.

"Unfortunately, that means that negotiations like these can founder, because they don't have sufficient political attention," she said.

The 79th World Health Assembly will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 18-23 May, 2026.

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