World ‘dangerously unprepared’ for future pandemics

A barber removes a sign in February 2022 requiring masks to be worn © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Countries around the world need to update their pandemic preparedness plans by the end of the year, says the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

In its World Disasters Report 2022External link, published on Monday, the IFRC said “all countries remain dangerously unprepared for future outbreaks” despite Covid-19 killing more people than any earthquake, drought or hurricane in history.

“The next pandemic could be just around the corner. If the experience of Covid-19 won’t quicken our steps toward preparedness, what will?” said Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of the IFRC, the world’s largest disaster response network.

The report said countries should review their legislation to ensure it is in line with their pandemic preparedness plans by the end of 2023 and adopt a new treaty and revised International Health Regulations by next year that would invest more in the readiness of local communities.

It also recommended that countries increase domestic health finance by 1% of GDP and global health finance by at least $15 billion (CHF13.8 billion) a year.

“The important thing is there has to be a political will to commit to that,” Chapagain said.

‘Inflection point’

Also on Monday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Covid remained a global health emergency, after a key advisory panel found the pandemic may be nearing an “inflection point” where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths.

Speaking at the opening of WHO’s annual executive board meeting in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “there is no doubt that we’re in a far better situation now” than a year ago – when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak.

But Tedros warned that in the past eight weeks at least 170,000 people had died around the world in connection with Covid. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.

“We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalisations and deaths to the lowest possible level,” he said.