The corona crisis did not come as a surprise to the world as the inadequate preparation of many countries - including Germany - suggests.

Years before, scientists, foundations, entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and, last but not least, the World Health Organization had warned of a pandemic of similar proportions and encouraged extensive preparations.

In Germany, the federal government informed parliament at the beginning of 2013 about a risk analysis modeled by the Robert Koch Institute on the possible spread of a variant of SARS introduced from Asia - with high death rates and devastating consequences for the health care system.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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So that the world is better prepared for such dangers and can react more quickly in the future, the World Health Organization (WHO) opened a center for pandemic and epidemic awareness on Wednesday. The base called “Hub” is being built in Berlin, initially at the Charité University Hospital in the Mitte district, and later in a new building on Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg. The director will be the German-born Nigerian epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu, who is still head of the Nigerian health authority.

At the opening, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) received the WHO Global Leadership Award. In her acceptance speech, she said the new office in Berlin will help move from epidemic research to application. Covid-19 has shown how much science can achieve if it works together on all levels. Germany played an important role in this. The first PCR test was developed at the Charité, and the Federal Republic of Germany was at the forefront when it came to vaccines.

Merkel is convinced that the new hub director Ihekweazu will build an important bridge to Africa, where in some countries only two percent of the population has been vaccinated.

The fact that there is a lot of vaccine in Germany at the same time and that citizens first have to be convinced of the immunization shows a great inequality that needs to be compensated.

Merkel again rejected proposals to suspend rights for vaccine patents.

It would be better to issue licenses, promote participation and train more staff in other countries.

The dependence on supply chains that do not always work is problematic.

It is in the interests of the whole world that all people are vaccinated, "so that mutations do not destroy the way out of the pandemic again".

The WHO had suggested the new facility in Berlin, Germany agreed to set up and finance it. The federal government is making 85 million euros available for this. "In order to be prepared for pandemics and epidemics, as much work as possible has to be done before the outbreak," said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the opening ceremony.