The world's effort to prepare for the next pandemic remains unfinished, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every delay could leave millions of people more exposed when the next health emergency strikes.

Opening the seventh meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) in Geneva on Monday, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that countries had hoped to complete negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) Annex before this year's World Health Assembly. The deadline was missed, but he urged governments not to lose momentum.

"The next pandemic will not wait for us to be ready," Dr Tedros warned, reminding delegates that infectious diseases continue to emerge without warning.

The PABS system aims to ensure that when a dangerous virus or bacterium is detected, countries rapidly share pathogen samples—tiny pieces of the germ that scientists study to develop diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines. In return, the benefits of those discoveries are expected to be shared more fairly, especially with countries that first detect new threats. Public health experts say such rapid exchange of samples and genetic information became one of the defining lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping researchers decode the virus within days and accelerate vaccine development, although unequal access to vaccines later exposed deep global inequalities.

Dr Tedros pointed to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as evidence that epidemic threats remain real rather than hypothetical. He also noted that the WHO declared the end of the cruise-ship-linked hantavirus outbreak only four days ago, crediting swift international cooperation for containing the disease before it spread further.

"Every month that this annexe remains unfinished is a month the world stays less prepared than it could be. It is people—real people, real families—left less safe than they deserve to be," he said.

Researchers have consistently shown that watching for diseases early, quickly analysing germs in labs, and sharing data openly between countries can greatly help spot outbreaks and speed up the creation of medical solutions. Those gains, however, depend on trust between countries and clear rules governing how scientific discoveries and health products are shared.

Urging negotiators to bridge their remaining differences, Dr Tedros concluded with a direct appeal: "Let's get this done. Not for an institution, not for a process, but for them."

The coming two weeks of negotiations may determine whether the world enters its next outbreak with stronger collective defences or repeats the costly lessons learned during COVID-19.