WHO: The next pandemic could break out at any moment

“Next pandemic could break out anywhere at any moment. It could be caused by a known virus or by a completely new agent—what scientists call pathogen X.”

This is the warning from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), made public in a video during the Mastering Immunity 2025 conference held in Singapore.

“The question is not whether pathogen X will appear, but whether we will be ready when it does,” he emphasized, calling for a global commitment to strengthen health preparedness.

The WHO chief reiterated the importance of expanding research using pathogen prototypes that can simulate the behavior of entire viral families, in order to understand transmission patterns and control strategies.

According to the World Health Organization, it is also crucial to develop geographically distributed and collaborative research.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded that, at this year’s World Health Assembly, countries approved the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement, an international legal instrument that sets binding commitments to strengthen research, development, and equitable access to vaccines and medical measures against pandemics.

Among the initiatives launched, he mentioned the mRNA technology program in South Africa, initiated in 2022 and now shared with a network of 15 partner countries.

WHO is working to promote open research consortia that bring together scientists, developers, funders, and regulators, with the goal of accelerating the development of tools against future pandemic threats.

“KORÇA BOOM”