The World Health Organization’s director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday that the world must plan for the next pandemic, which could be “even deadlier” than the COVID-19 contagion.
In a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, Ghebreyesus gave notice that the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly not over.
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“The threat of another variant emerging that causes new surges of disease and death remains,” he said. “And the threat of another pathogen emerging with even deadlier potential remains.”
Ghebreyesus also demanded updated negotiations on the International Health Regulations, the treaty guiding responses to health crises, “so the world will never again have to face the devastation of a pandemic like COVID-19.”
According to the WHO’s website, the International Health Regulations (IHR) include but are not limited to “areas of international travel and transport such as the health documents required for international traffic.”
While “health documents” are not defined on the website, it is plausible the phrase translates to items such as COVID-19 vaccines and testing.
Tedros’ alarm arrives on the heels of the WHO’s recent declaration that the COVID-19 pandemic has been downgraded, no longer posing as public health emergency.
“When the next pandemic comes knocking — and it will — we must be ready to answer decisively, collectively and equitably,” he continued.
“We cannot kick this can down the road,” Tedros said in an address to the WHO’s member states. “If we do not make the changes that must be made, then who will? And if we do not make them now, then when?”
The WHO has identified “priority” contagious diseases, which are labeled as likely catalysts for the next pandemic because of their propensity to transmit across a region, and because of the few measures in place to offset the spread.
These diseases include COVID-19, Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Zika, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and something called “Disease X.”
Disease X is the WHO code for an illness initiated by a germ that hasn’t been detected yet.
This isn’t the first foreshadowing of an impending pandemic. On October 18, 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum to host Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise.
The event resulted in several recommendations for pandemic preparedness and response including but not limited to familiar topics such as combatting misinformation, rapid development and distribution of vaccines, how social media can be used to implement government response, and how to deal with economic burden.
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