Health · Public Health & Disease · 1 hr ago
World Health Summit calls for more funding for pandemic prevention
At a World Health Summit workshop in Berlin, health experts and policymakers discussed how to prevent future pandemics.
About 60% of known human infectious diseases and 75% of emerging ones pass to people from animals.
In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak had caused 8,116 confirmed cases and 3,924 deaths by late September.
The risk of outbreaks may grow as land clearance and climate change bring people and wildlife closer together.
Experts said prevention costs far less than responding to epidemics, though its success can be hard to notice because it means a crisis never happens.
In February, the World Bank-hosted Pandemic Fund awarded US$499.6 million to 20 projects, half with “One Health” in their titles.
The workshop’s central message was that pandemic prevention needs more reliable funding.
A World Health Summit workshop in Berlin called for more funding for pandemic prevention.
The session focused on a One Health approach, linking human, animal and environmental health.
Participants questioned why governments spend more on responding to outbreaks than preventing them.
The article says prevention costs far less than responding to pandemics and zoonotic disease outbreaks.
- Who
- Participants at a World Health Summit workshop, including Helen Clark and Katrín Jakobsdóttir.
- What
- They discussed pandemic prevention and the need for more funding.
- When
- 12 October 2026.
- Where
- Berlin, Germany.
- Why
- Prevention funding remains limited, even though the article says prevention costs far less than responding to outbreaks.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
A World Health Summit workshop on preventing the next pandemic was held in Berlin.
The World Bank-hosted Pandemic Fund awarded US$499.6 million to 20 projects.
- Workshop date
- 12 October 2026
- Workshop location
- Berlin, Germany
- Pandemic Fund award
- US$499.6 million
- Projects funded
- 20
- Estimated annual primary prevention cost
- About $20 billion
What people are saying
Since the COVID-19 emergency period, the world has been responding to a health emergency around 70% of the time
Could it have been prevented altogether? What would it have taken to stop it?
is measured by the crisis that never happened
Sources
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