Former New Zealand prime minister and pandemic prep leader says we’re unprepared for the next one

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — If another pandemic happens, the world will again be unprepared. That’s the bleak assessment from former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark after the U.N. General Assembly held a high-level summit aimed at heading off another pandemic. Clark co-chaired the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Other pandemic experts who tracked months of negotiations on the 13-page declaration adopted by the assembly’s 193 member nations were disappointed, too. Clark who addressed last week’s summit, is the newest member of the group of former world leaders founded by the late Nelson Mandela known as The Elders.