Launch of WHO Pandemic Early Warning Center with PIK Researcher Sabine Gabrysch

The goal of the Global Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is to detect or prevent pandemic outbreaks at an early stage and thus better protect the world from future pandemics. Specifically, information from around the world will converge at the hub to detect threats such as those posed by Corona as early as possible. The panel discussion focused on the 'lessons learned' from COVID-19 and the links between pandemics, zoonotic diseases, environmental degradation and climate change. Participants in the panel were PIK researcher Sabine Gabrysch (PIK Potsdam and Charité Berlin), Fabiola Gianotti (Director General of the Nuclear Research Center CERN), Katalin Karikó (Senior Vice President of the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech) and Chikwe Ihekweazu (Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and future Director of the new Pandemic Center).

Other future tasks of the Pandemic Early Warning Center include:

• improved access to data sources that inform disease occurrence, evolution, and impact;
• developing state-of-the-art tools to process, analyze, and model data for detection, assessment, and response;
• making these tools available to WHO, its Member States, and partners as a basis for better and faster decisions on how to deal with outbreak signals and events;
• international research collaboration: institutions and networks that develop solutions to combat disease outbreaks will be linked.

Initially, the center will be located on the premises of the Charité, one of the founding partners. However, according to the WHO, it will have its own campus in Kreuzberg in the future.