World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus has warned that the world is not yet ready to deal with emergencies and crises, and that the repercussions of Covid-19 can still be felt.
Addressing the World Governments Summit 2024 in Dubai, he said that he had predicted six years ago that a pandemic would break out, and had warned that the world was not ready for it. The Covid-19 pandemic broke out less than two years later, he said.
“Today I stand before you, in the aftermath of COVID-19. With millions of people dead, social, economic and political shocks reverberate to this day. Although some progress has been made, like improvements in surveillance, the Pandemic Fund, building capacities in vaccine production and the periodic review we have started, still the world is not prepared for a pandemic.”
The WHO chief cautioned that the “painful lessons we learned are in danger of being forgotten…history teaches us that the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if.”
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Not prepared for Disease X
“There’s been a lot of attention on Disease X recently, but in fact it’s not a new thing. If it struck tomorrow, we would face many of the same problems we faced with Covid-19. It’s for this reason that in December 2021, WHO’s Member States met in Geneva and agreed to develop an international agreement on pandemic preparedness and response. With the deadline approaching in May 2024, there are issues on which countries have not yet reached consensus,” Dr. Ghebreyesus added.
Explaining the crucial role of the pandemic agreement, he said: “The pandemic agreement is a commitment to national security. Because pathogens have no regard for the lines humans draw on maps, nor for the color of our politics, the size of our economies or the strength of our military. We are one humanity, the same species, sharing the same DNA and the same planet. We have no future but a common future.”
Praise for UAE’s response
“I thank the UAE for its support for the WHO Global Logistics Hub here in Dubai, which has become an essential part of WHO’s operational response to health emergencies around the world. Last year, the hub distributed medical supplies for 50 million people in emergency situations in 81 countries, in every region of the world – Afghanistan, Chad, Fiji, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen and more,” he said.
“The hub is currently playing a vital role in our response to several emergencies around the world, including the ongoing crisis in Gaza. So far, we have delivered 447 metric tonnes of medical supplies to Gaza, but it’s a drop in the ocean of need, which continues to grow every day. Only 15 out of 36 hospitals are still partially or minimally functional in Gaza. Health workers are doing their best in impossible circumstances,” he added.
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