Better pandemic protection: WHO early warning center inaugurated in Berlin

Chancellor Merkel and WHO Director General Tedros have inaugurated a new center for pandemic awareness. On the campus in Berlin, risks are to be recorded more quickly in the future and measures to be taken to contain them are to be monitored.

To better prepare for future pandemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) has set up a pandemic early warning center in Berlin. The center was inaugurated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Billions of data on animal health, diseases, population movements, the consequences of climate change and much more will be processed in the center. The aim is to identify patterns at an early stage and create threat scenarios using computer models.

Lessons from the corona pandemic

The aim of the new center is to implement measures much earlier in the event of a new pandemic so that a pathogen does not spread around the world, if possible. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that the world cannot react quickly and effectively to emerging pandemics, the WHO said. The gaps in detection should be closed, among other things, by the new WHO center.

The first director is the Nigerian epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was born in Germany and is currently head of the Nigerian health authority. The center will receive start-up funding of 100 million US dollars (about 84 million euros) from Germany, according to the WHO. It starts on the premises of the Charité – one of the founding partners – and is to have its own campus in Berlin-Kreuzberg in the future, as the WHO announced.