WHO Director-General Tedros Warns World To Prepare For An Even Deadlier Disease Than Covid And Pandemic That ‘Will’ Come ‘Knocking’

The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is warning that another disease far more potent and deadlier than Covid-19 will be coming soon, and the world needs to prepare themselves for that.

This comes several weeks after Tedros officially downgraded Covid-19 as a pandemic and no longer deemed it an international emergency, with President Biden allowing the public health emergency to expire quietly the following week in the United States. Tedros did however provide a warning that Covid is here to stay and is still deadly: “This virus is here to stay. It is still killing, and it’s still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths,” he said.

Now the Director-General is again already sounding the alarm on more grave threats to come, namely a new deadlier disease and pandemic to boot.

Tedros gave his warnings in Geneva, Switzerland, this week celebrating the 76th Anniversary of the World Health Assembly (WHA) – the governing body for the WHO. There the group announced the creation of the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN). IPSN will provide all countries access to genomic sequencing to diagnose and answer to potential disease threats via genomics.

In his speech, Tedros acknowledged while the immediate threat of Covid is less now, saying it is “encouraging to see life return to normal – to be able to hug a friend, to travel freely, and to meet together” – he still warned that a new variant could emerge, or an even worse disease; along with another far deadlier pandemic, and the world mustn’t play around this time like it has before.

He said:

The threat of another variant emerging that causes new surges of disease and death remains.

And the threat of another pathogen emerging with even deadlier potential remains.

And pandemics are far from the only threat we face. In a world of overlapping and converging crises, an effective architecture for health emergency preparedness and response must address emergencies of all kinds.

This year’s High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Preparedness and Response is a valuable opportunity for leaders to chart a clear path forward towards that future.

We cannot kick this can down the road.

If we do not make the changes that must be made, then who will?

And if we do not make them now, then when?

When the next pandemic comes knocking – and it will – we must be ready to answer decisively, collectively and equitably.

He went on to lament that the several years of pandemonium have supposedly deterred the word from reaching the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, adding that “the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that it’s not 1 billion people but 8 billion people who need to be better protected.”

The pandemic has blown us off course, but it has shown us why the SDGs must remain our north star, and why we must pursue them with the same urgency and determination with which we countered the pandemic.

He said

SEE: World Economic Forum To Convene Special Summit In September To ‘Accelerate’ Agenda 2030 And Great Reset Goals After Poor United Nations SDG Report

Furthermore, he called upon world leaders to “commit to concrete targets over the next five years, on diagnosis, treatment, vaccine development, social protection, financing and research and innovation,” he stated.

He ended his speech by asking for three wishes:

I leave you with three requests:

First, I urge every Member State to work with the Secretariat to identify concrete ways to pick up the pace of progress on the triple billion targets and health related SDGs.

Second, I urge every Member State to engage constructively and urgently in negotiations on the pandemic accord and the International Health Regulations, so the world will never again have to face the devastation of a pandemic like COVID-19.

And third, I ask you to support the increase in assessed contributions, as well as plans for an investment round in 2024.

As we celebrate WHO’s 75^th anniversary, let us commit to do even more together to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.

SEE: WHO Says ‘We Must Prepare’ For H5N1 Bird Flu Pandemic. Wants To Update Pandemic Treaty To Forcibly Vaccinate Countries At Their Own Will. *UPDATE*