Project Syndicate: Diseases Without Borders
Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group

“…The WEF’s [World Economic Forum] Global Risks report emphasizes the need for robust plans to face the threat of pandemics. This is especially urgent in light of the rapid growth of cities and informal settlements — where infectious diseases can spread more easily — in developing countries. We need to start creating those plans now. After all, we do not know when the next pandemic will strike. We cannot eliminate global risk. We can, however, make our economies and societies more resilient and thus better equipped to minimize the impact of the threats we face. In this sense, forward-thinking initiatives like the global pandemic emergency facility are crucial to making the world a safer place for all of us” (1/22).