A G-20 to monitor health risks: WHO advisers' proposal to prepare for the next pandemic

BarcelonaThe covid-19 has made Europe realize, as it happens in the fable, that instead of wearing a new dress, the emperor was naked. This was confirmed on Tuesday by the experts who were commissioned by the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO) to rethink priorities in the light - or darkness - of the pandemic. "Covid-19 has revealed that our health, financial, economic and social services systems are not prepared and do not have the resources to deal effectively with such a situation", says the first report of the pan-European commission headed by former Italian Prime Minister and former European Commissioner Mario Monti.

The Monti commission, made up of around 20 independent experts from the fields of health, finance and global governance, makes a medium-term proposal, but warns that we cannot wait any longer to put in place an international structure to contain pandemics and other global health problems. Following the steps taken after the 2008 financial crisis, when a system for assessing the financial risks of countries was put in place, they now want to create a G-20 for health. "The viral diseases that we have had for thirty years have accelerated because we are spoiling the environment: we have more and more diseases that move from animals to people", Rafael Bengoa, former Minister of Health of the Basque Country and former director of health systems of the WHO, who is one of the members of the commission, explains to the ARA. Based on the One Health concept, which stresses the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health, the experts suggest that a world body should be set up to monitor health risks. "This is notwishful thinking. If we don't set up such a mechanism, when the next pandemic comes - and it will come - we will certainly regret it", he says.

Bridging social divides is the other major unfinished business. "Governments and international organizations have to close the fractures in our societies and stop ignoring the conditions that have caused the coronavirus to cause so much harm to the world. We need to change the way our societies view health and social services, how financial systems take account of health and environmental risks, and how global governance responds to the increasingly important role of public goods. We have a choice: ignore the evidence and allow future pandemics to hit us even harder, or listen to the warnings and implement what we have learned", warns Monti.

Rewilding societies

It seems a more attainable goal than "repairing the fractures in society and rebuilding trust in institutions by identifying and engaging people who are disenchanted, and improving access to health and social services". The experts also believe that levels of spending on health, social services, research and education should be increased, which they see as "an investment in human and intellectual capital that leads to progress", and propose that financial institutions and authorities incorporate health risks to people, animals and the environment into risk analyses. Aware that a challenge such as a pandemic cannot be tackled at a state level, they propose the creation of a Global Health Council at the G-20 level, similar to the Financial Stability Board, to promote an International Pandemic Treaty. The experts also insist on "the importance of investing in health systems as a foundation for social cohesion and well-being, which in turn underpins economic growth".

They also call on governments to work "together to coordinate and accelerate clinical trials to reduce backlogs and improve efficiency, as well as regulatory processes that coordinate and harmonize medicines and technologies". In this sense, they expose the need to "visibilize these fractures with pan-European measures to ensure the interoperability of health data", and also to make "health systems more inclusive", in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, to achieve universal health coverage.