Next pandemic could strike 'tomorrow' - WHO [Or as soon as they schedule it.] | 8 April 2025 | Another deadly pandemic could emerge as soon as "tomorrow," the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, calling on the countries of the world to prepare for it. In a statement on Monday, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged governments to invest in health security and finalize the Pandemic Agreement, an international treaty on pandemic prevention and response. The global outbreak of COVID-19, which began in late 2019, resulted in an estimated 20 million deaths worldwide and wiped more than $10 trillion from the global economy, according to the WHO. A new similar contagion "could happen in 20 years or more, or it could happen tomorrow. But it will happen, and either way, we must be ready," Ghebreyesus has said, describing it as "an epidemiological certainty" rather than "a theoretical risk." [Do not comply.]