Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday that the so-called ¨Global Pandemic Radar¨, a project in which the World Health Organization (WHO), non-governmental entities, and state-run and private research centers worldwide will also participate.
The world must never be caught unaware again by a virus spreading among us unchecked. We need to build a system of disease surveillance for the 21st century, with real-time information sharing and rapid genomic sequencing and response, Johnson said.
According to Johnson, Global Pandemic Radar will ensure that we are vigilant to new variants and emerging pathogens, and can rapidly develop the vaccines and treatments needed to stop them in their tracks.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was also quoted as saying, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the vital need for a robust, modern system to keep the world ahead of emerging diseases through active monitoring at the community level, swift and accurate sequencing of new pathogens, and data-sharing across the globe.’
The project will be based on a report commissioned by the British government to the Welcome Trust, a London-based charitable foundation focused on health research, which sets outs the mechanisms for a global pathogen surveillance system to create the brand-new ‘radar’ from other existing ones to monitor HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
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