The Buzz | WHO launches hub in Berlin to help prevent future pandemics

The World Health Organization inaugurated a new “hub” in Berlin that aims to help prepare the globe better to prevent future pandemics.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and German Chancellor Angela Merkel cut the ribbon to launch the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. WHO says Germany is making an initial investment of $100 million in the facility.
The hub is meant to promote more effective data collection, information-sharing and analysis, leading to better and more coherent decision-making after the patchy global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be headed by Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, currently the director-general of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control.
The COVID-19 pandemic “has taught the world many painful lessons,” Tedros said. “One of the most clear is the need for new, powerful systems and tools for global surveillance to collect, analyze and disseminate data on outbreaks with the potential to become epidemics and pandemics.”
Merkel emphasized that the information gathered by the new hub “should be shared with all countries.”