World in no better place to fight pandemics than before COVID - WHO review

World in no better place to fight pandemics than before COVID - review The world is no better prepared for a new pandemic than it was when coronavirus emerged in 2019 and may actually be in a worse place given the economic toll, according to a panel set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) to evaluate the global response. Jennifer Rigby Reuters

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A lack of progress on reforms such as international health regulations means the world is as vulnerable as ever, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said in its report.

The authors, led by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, acknowledged some progress, including on more robust funding for the WHO, but said the process was going far too slowly.

"We have right now the very same tools and the same system that existed in December 2019 to respond to a pandemic threat. And those tools just weren't good enough," Clark told reporters.

"If there were a new pandemic threat this year, next year, or the year after at least, we will be largely in the same place ... maybe worse, given the tight fiscal space of many, if not most, countries right now."

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