Madrid — New report led by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Helen Clark proposes actions that must be implemented to help make the world safer As H5N1 avian influenza surges in mammal populations and causes new human infections, and mpox is leading to deaths of children, the former Co-Chairs of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response warn that leaders have not done nearly enough to prepare for pandemic threats, leaving some eight billion people vulnerable. "In 2024, for everyone who survived COVID-19, a pandemic is a lived experience and not a theoretical threat," said Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "Instead of taking action to prepare for the next major outbreak, leaders have turned away from pandemic preparedness.
This is a gamble with our futures." President Sirleaf has noted with alarm the number of child deaths occurring as a result of a more dangerous strain of mpox, a dearth of diagnostic testing, and the fact that while vaccines exist, they are not yet available where children are dying. In their new report, No Time to Gamble: Leaders Must Unite to Prevent Pandemics, the former Co-Chairs take stock of progress against the package of recommendations The Independent Panel made to the World Health Assembly in May 2021 following its eight-month review of the response to COVID-19.
"We were clear in 2021 at the height of COVID-19, that leaders needed to act urgently to make transformative change to the international system, so that there would be a ne.
