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The world, although better prepared, is far from ready to face another pandemic, according to the (WHO).
Is the world better prepared? “The answer is yes and no” recently said the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Organization at the center of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If the next one came out today, the world would still be facing some of the same weaknesses. But the world has also learned many painful lessons from the pandemic and has taken important steps to strengthen its defenses,” he added.
According to Maria van Kerhove, the American epidemiologist who heads the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness at the WHO, “a lot of things have improved thanks to the 2009 influenza pandemic (H1N1), but also thanks to Covid”. “But I think the world is not prepared for another pandemic or mass epidemic,” he explained.
The importance of vaccines
The Independent Expert Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, set up by the WHO, puts it plainly: “In 2025, the world is not prepared to fight a new pandemic threat, due to the continuing disparities in access to finance and tools to fight pandemics, such as vaccines.”
Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans explained to AFP that the success and speed of making vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology could make a big difference during the next global health crisis. However, he is concerned that using them against a future threat will face “big problems”, mainly because of the “shockingly high” level of disinformation.
For his part, Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, believes that the possibility of an H5N1 bird flu pandemic should be taken “very seriously”. At present, the virus is not transmitted between humans, but is widely circulated in many species of animals.
“I don’t think we’re any more prepared than we were with Covid,” Meg Shaffery, an epidemiologist at the American SAS Institute, told AFP. He estimates it will take another four to five years for public health authorities to identify and share information more quickly. But he has “confidence” in the lessons the population learned during Covid-19 to protect themselves, such as social distancing and wearing masks.
What has been done
Launched in 2021 in Berlin, WHO’s new center for pandemic prevention is dedicated to gathering information to better identify and contain threats.
The World Bank’s Pandemic Response Fund, established in 2022, has approved $885 million in funding to date, available for nearly 50 projects in 75 countries.
A technology transfer center for mRNA vaccines was launched in South Africa in 2023 with support mainly from the WHO, while a global biomanufacturing training center was established in South Korea in 2022 with the aim of boosting local pharmaceutical production.
On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) regarding Covid-19, but with overly bureaucratic tones.
And most countries and the general public only reacted when the head of the WHO first used the much clearer term “pandemic” on March 11, 2020.
To enable more effective international cooperation, WHO member countries agreed on the concept of “pandemic emergency”, which is now the highest level of global alert.
In December 2021, WHO member countries decided to reach an agreement on pandemic prevention and preparedness to avoid serious mistakes in the management of Covid.
The unanswered questions
However, major questions remain unanswered, including sharing data on emerging pathogens and the benefits of this to inform specific vaccines, tests and treatments, and for pandemic surveillance.
Negotiators have set a deadline of May 2025 to reach a consensus.
In addition, more than 200 scientists from over 50 countries evaluated data on 1,652 pathogens – mostly viruses – allowing the WHO to draw up this year a list of around 30 pathogens likely to cause future pandemics, such as Covid-19, Lassa fever and the Ebola viruses , Zika and Marburg.
Source: APE-MPE, AFP
