WHO calls for sustained investment to prepare for future pandemics
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged governments to maintain political commitment and investment in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. At a United Nations meeting in New York, leaders highlighted progress since COVID-19 but said negotiations on pathogen-sharing arrangements and equitable access to medical products must be completed.
The World Health Organisation has called for continued international action and investment to strengthen preparedness for future pandemics, warning that progress made since COVID-19 must be sustained. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivered the message on Friday at the second United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response in New York. Political leaders at the meeting renewed their commitment to making the world safer from future health emergencies.
Tedros said the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with more than 20 million excess deaths between 2020 and 2023 and caused more than $10 trillion in economic losses. He said the crisis had exposed weaknesses in global health security and called for stronger local and national capacities, resilient health systems and fairer access to vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and other tools. The WHO said countries had made progress over the past three years.
It cited the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, amendments to the International Health Regulations, and the creation or expansion of infrastructure for surveillance, pathogen sharing and local manufacturing. However, governments have yet to complete negotiations on an annex to the Pandemic Agreement establishing a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system. The proposed system would support the rapid sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential while helping ensure that benefits from research and development are distributed equitably.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed urged member states to accelerate the negotiations. The WHO said adoption of the annex at the next World Health Assembly in May 2027 would be required before countries could begin national consideration of ratifying the agreement. The declaration adopted at the meeting also called for global solidarity, a One Health approach linking human, animal and environmental health, and long-term financing.
Leaders said pandemic preparedness should remain a political priority even between health emergencies.
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