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World Health Organization (WHO)
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Are we prepared for the next pandemic? Only if world breaks ‘cycle of panic and neglect’, says ex-New Zealand PM

  • Covid-19 killed some 24 million people globally but the world is now ‘arguably worse off’ in terms of pandemic preparedness, according to Helen Clark
  • New Zealand’s former leader said only one firm commitment was made at a recent high-level UN gathering on pandemic preparedness: hold another meeting

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A child cries as a doctor wearing protective gear takes an oral swab for coronavirus testing in Ahmedabad, India, in April 2020. The pandemic set back UN goals for 2030 on a wide variety of issues, including eliminating extreme poverty and hunger. Photo: Reuters
Associated Press

If another pandemic happens, the world will again be unprepared.

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That’s the bleak assessment of former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who co-chaired the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, after the United Nations General Assembly held a high-level summit aimed at heading off another pandemic. The upshot: have another meeting.

Other pandemic experts who tracked months of negotiations on the 13-page declaration adopted by the assembly’s 193 member nations were disappointed, too.

“I think it’s fair to say that the declaration is a missed opportunity,” Clark said in an interview on the sidelines of the General Assembly’s high-level leaders’ meeting. “It has many pages and paragraphs and only one firm commitment and that is to hold another high-level meeting in three years’ time.”

Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, said the UN’s recent pandemic-preparedness summit failed to take into account the effects of an outbreak on people’s livelihoods and government operations. Photo: Reuters
Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, said the UN’s recent pandemic-preparedness summit failed to take into account the effects of an outbreak on people’s livelihoods and government operations. Photo: Reuters

Clark, who addressed last week’s summit, is the newest member of the group of former world leaders founded by the late Nelson Mandela known as The Elders. She said a key problem is the declaration’s main focus on health.

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