WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the Royal College of Defence Studies – 13 February 2026

Lieutenant General Sir George Norton,

Dear colleagues and friends,

Good morning, and welcome to WHO.

This is now the fourth year we have welcomed the Royal College of Defence Studies to WHO.

Thank you for your interest in learning more about WHO - we certainly value the opportunity.

As you know, the Munich Security Conference begins today.

Six years ago, I was invited to speak at the Munich Security Conference, just a few days after I had declared COVID-19 to be a public health emergency of international concern - the highest level of alarm under international health law.

We were concerned that not enough countries were taking that alarm seriously enough.

So I said in Munich that COVID-19 is "public enemy number one". Afterwards, I had ministers asking me, "Tedros, aren't you exaggerating?"

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic became the greatest global crisis since the Second World War.

And it wasn't just a health crisis - it was a social crisis, an economic crisis, and a political crisis, whose impacts are still with us.

I was back at the Munich Security Conference last year, where I was speaking to a foreign minister about the large increases in defence spending that had been announced by some countries.

He said, "We have to prepare for the worst."

I said, "I understand, but what about preparing for an attack from an invisible enemy?"

"What do you mean?" he asked me. "What invisible enemy?"

"A pandemic," I said. "The COVID-19 pandemic killed an estimated 20 million people and wiped more than 10 trillion US dollars from the global economy."

It's amazing how quickly we forget. It's what we call the cycle of panic neglect - the world reacts to a crisis, but once it's over, we move on to the next crisis and fail to learn the lessons it taught us.

The point is this: global health security is national security. Because ultimately, pathogens have no regard for the lines humans draw on maps, nor for the colour of our politics, the size of our economies or the strength of our military.

And yet, countries spend vast sums protecting themselves against attacks from other countries, but relatively little on protecting themselves from an invisible enemy that can cause far more damage.

I'm often asked whether the world is ready for the next pandemic.

My answer is yes and no.

Over the past six years, WHO has taken many steps to address gaps in global health security exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, together with the World Bank we established the Pandemic Fund, which has catalyzed investments of almost 7 billion U.S. dollars in strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in 75 countries.

We also established the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, to harness the power of AI to quickly identify new threats.

We established the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme in South Africa, which is now sharing vaccine technology with 15 partners around the world.

To improve sharing of biological samples, we established the WHO BioHub here in Switzerland, which last year coordinated 25 sample shipments to 13 laboratories in nine countries, to guide research and development of cuntermeasures.

To improve equitable access to lifesaving tools we established an interim Medical Countermeasures Network;

With partners we established the Global Health Emergency Corps;

The World Health Assembly adopted a package of amendments to strengthen the International Health Regulations - the cornerstone of international health law;

And last year, WHO Member States adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement, which once it enters force, will be a powerful new instrument of international law to ensure a more coordinated global response to future pandemics.

As we speak, our Member States are here at WHO negotiating an annex to the Pandemic Agreement - the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, to ensure rapid detection and sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential, and equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

We are hopeful that the negotiations will be completed in time for the PABS annex to be adopted at this year's World Health Assembly, so the Pandemic Agreement can be opened for signature and finally enter into force as international law.

There has been some misinformation about the Pandemic Agreement, including that it cedes national sovereignty to WHO, or to the Director-General.

In fact, the Agreement is explicit, in Article 22, that it gives the WHO Secretariat no authority to direct, order or prescribe national laws or policies. Nor does it give WHO any power to impose vaccine mandates, lockdowns or other measures.

We must be clear about this.

The adoption of the Agreement was truly historic, not only because of what's in it, but also because of the context in which it was negotiated.

In a divided, divisive and fractured world, countries demonstrated they can still find common ground for a common purpose.

They showed that multilateralism is alive and well.

And they demonstrated why they created WHO in the first place: as a forum for countries to find shared solutions to shared threats.

The writers of our Constitution affirmed not only that health is a human right, but also that the health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security.

They knew that there is no health without peace, and no peace without health.

It's no coincidence that the 1918 influenza pandemic erupted during the First World War.

It's no coincidence that polio reemerged in Gaza last year, 25 years after the last case.

It's no coincidence that there are outbreaks of measles, dengue, malaria, diphtheria and cholera in Sudan;

It's no coincidence that the final frontier for eradicating polio is in the most insecure regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

War and disease are old friends.

In both the Napoleonic wars and the American Civil War, more soldiers died from disease than in battle.

War and violence lead to direct injuries, but they also create an environment where health-care systems collapse, diseases spread, and mental health deteriorates.

The scars of conflict can persist long after the fighting has ceased, creating a cycle of despair that is difficult to break.

In recent years we have also seen a disturbing new trend in conflicts around the world: the intentional targeting of health workers and health facilities in conflict.

Last year, WHO verified 1350 attacks on health care in 19 countries and territories, causing 1981 deaths and 1168 injuries among health workers and patients - in Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.

In all of these places, WHO is working to alleviate suffering. But what the people of these nations need more than the aid we deliver is peace.

Because the best medicine is peace.

As the birthplace of multilateralism and the Geneva Conventions, and the home of both WHO and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva is the city where peace and health meet.

Thank you all for your interest in WHO, and I very much hope you find your time here - and in Geneva - useful.