Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's COVID-19 technical lead, is worried "not enough is happening" around the globe to enhance infectious disease surveillance and implement other tactics that could prevent the next serious outbreak of a dangerous pathogen, she told Stat News in an interview about the WHO's forthcoming Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens.
"I see some work in this area," Van Kerkhove said, noting that "there are a lot of calls for better surveillance in animal populations, there's a huge effort to increase sequencing capacity worldwide." But, even though she believes "we're better prepared than we were a year ago to" to face future public health crises, she doesn't think the efforts to bolster the arsenal against them are moving "fast enough."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Magazine printables - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025
-
Why ghost guns are so easy to make — and so dangerousThe Explainer Untraceable, DIY firearms are a growing public health and safety hazard
-
The Week contest: Swift stimulusPuzzles and Quizzes
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Long Covid: study shows damage to brain's 'control centre'The Explainer Research could help scientists understand long-term effects of Covid-19 as well as conditions such as MS and dementia
-
FDA OKs new Covid vaccine, available soonSpeed read The CDC recommends the new booster to combat the widely-circulating KP.2 strain
-
Mpox: how dangerous is new health emergency?Today's Big Question Spread of potentially deadly sub-variant more like early days of HIV than Covid, say scientists
