After the Covid-19 pandemic, world health leaders agreed to work together to strengthen global health systems, but negotiations for a new agreement have stalled.
How prepared is the world for another pandemic Photo: Archive
Five years ago, the world heard the first reports of a mysterious flu-like illness that emerged in Wuhan, China, now known as Covid-19. The ensuing pandemic killed more than 14 million people and sent shockwaves through the world economy.
Although world health leaders acknowledged that another pandemic was not a matter of “if” but “when” and pledged to work together, negotiations on a new pandemic agreement to provide a firm basis for future international cooperation, have stagnated in 2024. Instead, other global public health threats and emergencies have been identified during this time, The Guardian reports.
If a new pandemic threat emerges in 2025, experts are not yet convinced that we will fare any better than the last one.
New health threats emerge frequently. World health leaders have declared an outbreak of mpox in Africa, becoming an international public health emergency in 2024. At the end of the year, teams of specialists were investigating a potential outbreak of an unknown disease in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, about which are now believed to be cases of severe malaria and other diseases exacerbated by acute malnutrition.
“The health care workforce has taken a big hit”
Maria van Kerkhove, acting director of preparedness and prevention for epidemics and pandemics at the World Health Organization (WHO), is concerned about the bird flu situation – the virus does not spread from person to person, but there has been an increasing number of infections humans last year.
While there is a well-established international monitoring system, specifically focused on influenza, surveillance in sectors such as trade and agriculture, where humans and animals mix, is not comprehensive enough, she says.
“The seasonal flu started circulating, we had a mpox emergency, we had Marburg, we had cholera, we had earthquakes, we had floods, measles, diphtheria, dengue, Oropouche. Health systems are really buckling under the weight and our health workforce globally has really taken a big hit. Many have left. Many suffer from PTSD. Many died“, says the researcher.
Experts’ conclusion: “The world is not ready for a new pandemic”
The world has never been in a better position when it comes to the expertise, technology and data systems to quickly detect a threat, says Van Kerkhove. Expanding genomic sequencing capabilities in most countries around the world and better access to medical oxygen and infection prevention and control remain “really big wins” after the Covid-19 pandemic, she adds.
“On the other hand, I think that the difficulties and traumas that we all went through with the Covid pandemic and other outbreaks, in the context of war and climate change and economic and political crises, show that we are not ready to face another pandemic“, says Maria van Kerkhove.
The long-term solution, she says, is “about getting the right level of investment. It’s about correcting that sense of urgency. It’s about making sure the system is not fragile.”
The Minister of Health of Rwanda, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, faces two major disease outbreaks in 2024: the public health emergency of mpox in Africa and another 66 cases of Marburg virus in his own country.
He also co-chairs the board of the Pandemic Fund, established in November 2022 as a funding mechanism to help poorer countries prepare for emerging pandemic threats.
If the next pandemic comes in 2025, he warns: “Unfortunately, no, the world is not ready. Since the Covid public health emergency ended, too many political leaders have turned their attention and resources to other challenges. We are once again entering what we call the cycle of neglect. People forget how costly the pandemic has been in lives and economies and fail to heed its lessons.”
He says the Pandemic Fund “it urgently needs more resources to accomplish its mission“. It received requests from low- and middle-income countries totaling $7 billion to fund investments in pandemic preparedness and response, up from $850 million available.
In 2022, WHO began negotiations for a new pandemic agreement to provide a firm basis for future international cooperation. But the talks failed to produce a result by the original deadline of the annual World Health Assembly in May 2024.
