05-24-2021, 08:05 AM
Germany, WHO announce creation of new data hub to fight pandemics
Reuters [emphasis mine] | May 5, 2021
German Health Minister Jens Spahn called on Wednesday for a "global reset" in the fight against pandemics as Germany and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the creation of a new global hub in Berlin for gathering data on pandemics.
Speaking at a virtual news conference attended also by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the WHO, Spahn said the world was still insufficiently prepared for pandemics.
"We need to identify pandemic and epidemic risks as quickly as possible, wherever they occur in the world," Spahn said.
"For that aim, we need to strengthen the global early warning surveillance system with improved collection of health-related data and inter-disciplinary risk analysis."
The new hub in Berlin, bringing together governmental, academic and private sector institutions, aims to harness global data to predict, prevent and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.
"There will be more viruses that will emerge with the potential of sparking pandemics," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the news conference.
The WHO has been criticised for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, sparked by a new coronavirus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Three independent panels are due to report this month on how the WHO and member states reacted, and propose changes. Tedros has said repeatedly that the U.N. agency is open to reforms. [See here, for example. - The Catacombs]
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre