Looking Forward: How is the WHO Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness Measures?
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and our world changed.
Lockdowns went into effect, global travel was disrupted, supply chains were tested, and public health systems were stressed to the breaking point during a health emergency that claimed more than 7 million lives.
The WHO is the United Nations agency that connects member states to promote health and directs and coordinates the world’s response to health emergencies—including COVID-19. Five years after declaring COVID a pandemic, the WHO continues to monitor the risk of the disease and improve its abilities to prevent the next pandemic.
To better understand the work the WHO is doing on this front, Security Management sent an interview request to the organization. Tarik Jašarević, a spokesperson for the WHO, provided the following answers.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Security Management (SM). What lessons did the WHO learn from the COVID-19 pandemic experience?
Tarik Jašarević. If the next pandemic arrived today, the world would still face some of the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that gave COVID-19 a foothold five years ago.
But the world has also learned many of the painful lessons the pandemic taught us and has taken significant steps to strengthen its defenses against future epidemics and pandemics.
SM. What are some of the steps that the WHO has taken to strengthen defenses?
Jašarević. Together with the World Bank, WHO established the Pandemic Fund—which is now financing 19 projects in 37 countries, with $338 million in grants.
The WHO has supported many countries to strengthen their lab capacity to detect and sequence pathogens, and we established the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Germany to foster collaborative surveillance.
To improve local production of vaccines and other medical products, we established the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa and a Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing in the Republic of Korea. To improve equitable access to lifesaving tools we established an interim Medical Countermeasures Network. With partners, we established the Global Health Emergency Corps.
In May of this past year, the World Health Assembly adopted a package of amendments to the International Health Regulations.
SM. How is the world better prepared today to respond to a global pandemic?
Jašarević. We are better prepared because we’ve taken concrete measures within countries to improve surveillance systems; to increase diagnostic capacities, sequencing capacities, and emergency operation centers; the use of medical oxygen and sustaining the use of medical oxygen; and clinical care. In some cases, we have better [personal protective equipment, or PPE], but we need more work on ventilation. Those systems have been investments.
We also have taken some concrete steps with regards to setting up, within WHO, hubs for supply chains to be able to better have those materials in locations around the world so they can reach the people in need the most.
We’re also seeing a decline in those systems. How can we maintain those for the next one? It’s not a matter of if, but when.
SM. Negotiators are working towards approving a Pandemic Agreement to protect people from future pandemics. Why would such an agreement better prepare us to respond to future public health emergencies?
Jašarević. Infectious diseases know no borders. Everyone knows that there is no way to stop or reduce the impact of an infectious disease without working together. The pandemic treaty is a generational agreement and a promise to the future that we, the countries of the world, have come together to commit to a process to save millions of lives.
What we recognize is that the world is a much healthier and safer place when we operate with a set of rules that allow us to engage and behave in a predictable way in a crisis—because there’s nothing worse in a crisis than adding more chaos.
The Pandemic Agreement is about committing to making our health systems more resilient, training our health care workers to respond to crises, making vaccines more readily available, and strengthening surveillance systems to better detect viruses. In short, this is about 194 member states coming together to commit to a process of saving lives and learning from the lessons of the past.
SM. During and following the COVID-19 pandemic, distrust grew online of institutions—including those that represent public health officials and scientists. What is the WHO doing to continue to foster trust in the work that it does and be seen as a credible source of information about public health?
Jasarevic. Numerous independent panels have made more than 300 recommendations to prevent a future catastrophe, but the lack of progress threatens to erase the hard-earned gains made during the pandemic.
Unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult to prepare for the next pandemic, especially because of decreased trust in political leaders, institutions, and science, and urgent national priorities.
Despite these challenges, WHO member states continue to craft a legally binding agreement aimed at strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Advancing this agreement is critical to shore up systems and capacities ahead of the next pandemic.
Although negotiations have been tough, they have not ended, and the shared sense of urgency will hopefully drive countries to find a way forward and finalize the agreement in time for the World Health Assembly in May 2025.
Megan Gates is senior editor with Security Management. Connect with her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.
