Why Germany will be at the center of the next pandemic
Created: 03/21/2022, 20:20
From: Foreign Policy
The logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for better protection for hospitals in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
© Peter Klaunzer/dpa
For geopolitical reasons - and for financial reasons - Berlin has become the seat of the first pandemic center of the WHO.
Germany was an obvious choice for WHO for political and technocratic reasons.
But some are wondering why the WHO did not locate its new pandemic preparedness office in a country in the Global South.
And while the new pandemic office needs to emphasize the value of working together, it also needs to deal with countries that refuse to share data.
This article is available in German for the first time – it was first published in
Foreign Policy
magazine on January 11, 2022 .
Berlin - In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) became a battlefield of global geopolitical disputes - particularly between the United States and China.
At the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, the Trump administration withdrew funding from the WHO, accusing it of being too fixated on China and thus undermining the organization's legitimacy.
Meanwhile, Beijing used the WHO to gain global influence, including promoting its “Silk Road of Health”.
The new permanent WHO pandemic early warning center, less than a two-hour flight away in Berlin, may not appear as if it will significantly relieve the organization's controversial policies.
But the centre's director, Chikwe Ihekweazu - former head of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and deputy director-general of the WHO - believes this is the perfect place for the WHO to begin a new chapter in its history.
"I think Berlin is an interesting place for that because it offers the necessary proximity to Geneva, but also a bit of distance," he told
Foreign Policy
.
Set up in one of Europe's leading tech cities, the new center aims to use cutting-edge technology and a multidisciplinary approach to collect analytical data that will help detect and prevent the next pandemic.
Germany was an obvious choice for WHO for political and technocratic reasons.
It remains to be seen, however, whether Berlin's influence will be enough to overcome the organization's greatest weaknesses: global rivalries fueled by the rise of China and nationalist politics that prevent access to reliable information.
Why Germany will be at the center of the next pandemic
Germany's growing public leadership role in WHO matches its pre-eminent behind-the-scenes role.
When then-US President Donald Trump* announced in May 2020 that he would end US funding for the WHO, Germany quickly filled the gap and became the organization's largest donor that year.
"There was a great deal of discussion about WHO funding, especially when President Trump announced that he would be relinquishing his membership in the WHO," said Ulrich Lechte, chair of the United Nations subcommittee of the Bundestag and a member of the Free Democratic Party.
“It was when Germany stepped in with a wad of millions of dollars to give the WHO some of the money that the US was missing... Talks were going on in Germany, specifically about funding.
In the early months of the pandemic, the German government under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel focused on science rather than geopolitics, according to Rafael Loss, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"Merkel's approach was cautious.
As far as the origin of the corona virus* was concerned, for example, she was rather careful with China,” he says.
“As a scientist, she took a very rational approach and believed in science, in scientists.
I believe that may have defused some tensions that would otherwise have damaged Sino-German relations and the context of the COVID crisis.” The fact that Germany has good relations with both the United States and China* closed it a logical choice for a new WHO outpost.
However, the most obvious reason for choosing Berlin was purely financial.
The country wrote a $100 million check as an initial investment to fund the project.
There is no doubt that there is a dynamic where money is at stake, says Maike Voss, managing director of the German Alliance for Climate Change and Health.
In February 2020, France also wrote a check for US$100 million and received a new WHO Academy campus in Lyon, France.
"I find it very interesting that Germany has criticized France for bypassing WHO decision-making bodies and is now doing the same," Voss said.
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Corona pandemic: New WHO pandemic early warning center in Germany
According to close observers, the agreement was decided at the highest political level in Geneva and Germany.
“[WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] knows Angela Merkel* very well,” says Detlev Ganten, a world-renowned expert in molecular medicine and retired founder of the World Health Summit.
"They like each other, they talk to each other.
So, as always, it was a mixture of good contacts, good infrastructure and, of course, the money.”
Financial considerations aside, some believe the WHO will benefit from Berlin's unique history as a divided city.
This could help bridge the growing geopolitical gap between East and West, says Ganten: "I think that's a bit in the DNA of German history and politics.
We understand the people who lived in the eastern part of Germany or Europe, who knew the socialist bloc and communism.
This generation is still alive and sometimes has a different attitude towards society and politics.
This is an advantage for understanding people living in different regions and political systems of the world.”
Of course, it doesn't hurt that Germany has a high concentration of internationally recognized health experts and Berlin is widely known as a hotspot for tech start-ups.
Both will be important to the success of the new center.
“Germany is a country of science and academics.
The profession of doctors and professors is generally held in high esteem,” says Ganten.
Why didn't WHO locate new office for pandemic preparedness in country of the Global South?
But even if Germany has the resources to run the center and the political will, some wonder why the WHO did not base its new pandemic preparedness office in a country in the Global South.
With limited access to vaccines, the global South is more likely to suffer the effects of COVID-19 for years to come.
The Global South also has a track record when compared to other advanced economies, including Germany.
"It's quite shocking that the countries with the highest per capita mortality rates are those with the best technological capacity and financial resources, while low-income countries - like Cambodia, Senegal and Bhutan - experience contagion mostly in the first 12 months contain," said Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, professor of international affairs at the New School in New York City.
She believes that the integration of "low-tech" solutions is crucial in dealing with future pandemics, and experts from these countries can offer such perspectives.
Ihekweazu, who is originally from Nigeria, agrees.
Johanna Hanefeld, head of the Center for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute*, the German body for disease surveillance and prevention, emphasizes that the location of the center does not matter as its mission is global.
"I think it's important that the center connects with everyone, regardless of where they are," she explains.
“It is not a center for Germany.
It's only in Germany.” But the center already has strong ties to two of Germany's biggest players in healthcare: the Charité and the Robert Koch Institute.
As director of the new pandemic center, Ihekweazu says one of his main areas of focus will be promoting data sharing across national borders.
He knows first-hand what the consequences can be if this does not succeed.
Ihekweazu was part of the first joint WHO-China mission to study the origin of COVID-19.
The WHO team had very limited access to information about the early stages of the pandemic.
"To be honest, nobody could have guessed at the time what a big pandemic we were facing," says Ihekweazu.
“Nobody could have foreseen how bad it was going to be.
I can't go into detail about a country's openness or lack of openness, but I think the most important lesson for me is that you shouldn't be influenced by the circumstances of one country or another."
Coronavirus: The key to preventing the next pandemic does not lie in China's hands alone
The partners of the new Berlin center believe that China is not the only culprit when it comes to access to data on the early phase of the pandemic: "This does not only apply to China," says Axel Pries, dean and member of the board the charity.
"We would like more information on the initial situation of the pandemic, but this has also been seen in Europe, where the first response to the pandemic was to secure parts of the vaccine production for their own country, although international production of vaccines is a very, is a very international matter.” Germany itself still refuses to relinquish patents for COVID-19 vaccines.
So the key to preventing the next pandemic does not lie in the hands of China alone.
"It is difficult to control whether the health data is collected correctly and whether it is not distorted," says Ganten.
“We don't know what's coming from, for example, Johns Hopkins or from others - how they collect the data.
And you always have to be skeptical about the quality of your own data and that of other sources.”
For the director of the center, one of the biggest challenges is demonstrating the benefits of sharing data.
“A lot of narratives are dominated by the big countries, yet the world is made up of almost 200 nations and we're going to start with a country that we think has that openness and willingness to share, and then we can see the value of that principle demonstrate,” says Ihekweazu.
Country in which a pandemic or a new corona variant breaks out experiences adverse economic consequences
But of course there is also a lot of evidence to the contrary, namely that data sharing can have negative consequences in the short term, at least in economic and political terms.
Ihekweazu spoke to
Foreign Policy
on November 27, 2021, a few days after South Africa announced the discovery of the omicron variant.
Many countries had already canceled flights and introduced restrictive measures against South Africa.
The case illustrates why countries are reluctant to share data.
The country in which a pandemic or a new variant breaks out will always face adverse economic consequences.
"We've seen countries take unilateral action against other countries in the form of entry restrictions without considering the global impact," Ihekweazu says.
"Because then this country might decide... next time not to share its genome sequencing data as openly as it has.
Then what are the consequences?”
While the new pandemic office must emphasize the value of working together, it must also engage with countries that refuse to share data.
The strategic location of Berlin could have its limits here.
While Germany has managed to maintain a reasonably friendly and pragmatic relationship with China during the pandemic, Germany's attitude toward China may change under the new government that takes office in December 2021.
The country's new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock*, who is also co-chair of the Green Party, has pledged to take a tougher stance on China.
However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz* has conducted an election campaign that focuses on continuity in terms of Merkel's policies rather than radical changes.
By Stephanie Fillion
Stéphanie Fillion
is a French-Canadian reporter specializing in foreign affairs who works at the United Nations.
She writes for
PassBlue
and hosts
UN-Scripted
, a podcast about the United Nations.
This article was first published in English in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" on January 11, 2022 - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals. *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.