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By Jordan King
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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the "next pandemic" the world will face is not a "theoretical risk" but an "epidemiological certainty."
Why It Matters
Health organizations have been concerned by the world being enveloped by another pandemic after COVID-19 struck globally in 2020, killing millions of people and sparking economic and political upheaval.
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Concerns have emerged as recently as last month, when a new coronavirus was discovered in China.
WHO member states are currently in talks about the WHO Pandemic Agreement, intended as a legal instrument to improve global readiness and response to pandemics.
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What To Know
Tedros spoke on readiness on Monday at the opening of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Pandemic Agreement.
"The COVID-19 pandemic may now seem like a distant memory, overtaken by conflict and geopolitical and economic disruption," Tedros said. "But the next pandemic will not wait until things calm down.
"It could happen in 20 years or more, or it could happen tomorrow. But it will happen, and either way, we must be ready. This is not a theoretical risk; it is an epidemiological certainty."
He cited outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg virus disease and the spread of avian influenza in birds, cattle, other animals and humans.
Tedros was encouraging member states to "bring the WHO Pandemic Agreement across the finish line."
He said the agreement would "in no way infringe any Member State's sovereignty" but "strengthen national sovereignty and international action."
Tedros argued that "health is a security issue" naming the COVID-19 pandemic as an "invisible enemy."
"A pandemic can kill more people, and cause more social and economic disruption than a war," he said, "Indeed, the first World War killed an estimated 15 to 22 million people, while the 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people—more than double."
Newsweek has contacted the United States Department of Health and Human Services, via email, for comment.
Tedros' comments come after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration withdrew from WHO, upon the instructions of one of the president's multiple executive orders issued on his first day in office.
Trump has previously accused the organization of mismanaging the pandemic and announced a halt in funding to the WHO on April 14, 2020, during his first term in office. President Joe Biden subsequently reestablished relations with the organization before Trump issued the executive order withdrawing in January.
What People Are Saying
Tedros said: "The world needs a strong signal that in these divided and divisive times, countries can still come together to collaborate and find common ground. The Pandemic Agreement can be that signal, and you can be the ones to give it."
The text of Trump's executive order accused the WHO of "mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic" and said that it had failed to adopt "urgently needed reforms" and had not been independent from "inappropriate political influence of WHO member state
What Happens Next
The Thirteenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Pandemic Agreement will end on April 11.
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