(VOVWORLD) - The World Health Organization on Wednesday inaugurated a new “hub” in Berlin that aims to help prepare the globe better to prevent future pandemics.
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) receives a medal from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the inauguration ceremony of the "WHO Hub For Pandemic And Epidemic Intelligence" in Berlin, on September 1, 2021. (Photo: EPA) |
The event saw the participation of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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.
Merkel emphasized that the basic foundation for the fight against future pandemics is data. The hub’s main task is to collect and gather information and data around the world such as information on animal diseases, unusual diseases in humans, changes in human behavior, consequences of climate change, and population displacement, she said.