New pandemic inevitable, WHO chief asserts

Another pandemic will occur sooner or later and this is not a “theoretical risk” but an “epidemiological certainty,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.

Speaking at the opening of the resumed Thirteenth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, he reiterated the dire consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide, emphasizing that “the next pandemic will not wait until things calm down.”

According to the WHO chief, its emergence is “not a theoretical risk; it is an epidemiological certainty.” He reiterated that another pandemic “could happen in 20 years or more, or it could happen tomorrow.” “But it will happen, and either way, we must be ready,” Ghebreyesus asserted.

“You have seen what the COVID-19 pandemic did. Officially 7 million people were killed, but we estimate the true toll to be 20 million. And on top of the human cost, the pandemic wiped more than US $10 trillion from the global economy,” he noted.

The WHO chief expressed hope that consensus can be reached during the talks on the WHO Pandemic Agreement. He assured that “this agreement will in no way infringe any Member State’s sovereignty. In fact, the opposite: it will strengthen national sovereignty and international action.”

The 77th World Health Assembly held in Geneva from May 27 to June 1, 2024, agreed to introduce amendments to the International Health Regulations and continue talks on the pandemic agreement.

The public health emergency of international concern due to COVID-19 was in effect from late January 2020 until May 5, 2023. According to the WHO, as of March 23, 2025, 777,684,506 coronavirus infections have been registered worldwide with 7,092,720 fatalities.