A career in containment: insights from the epicenter of WHO’s COVID-19 response

“Many governments have announced cuts to health spending, with funding reallocated to defense. I believe that this is short-sighted because health IS defense.”

Thanks to WHO’s daily televised press briefings, Maria Van Kerkhove (Acting Director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention and COVID-19 Technical Lead, WHO) became one of the most recognizable scientists of the COVID-19 era. Speaking with Charlotte Barker (Editor, Vaccine Insights), she reflects on the pressures of communicating in real time during an unfolding emergency. She describes WHO’s strategy for building stronger surveillance systems for high-risk pathogens and explains why health security must remain a priority as geopolitical tensions rise and global attention drifts.

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