By Niamh Harris April 27, 2026
A former lead scientist on the World Well being Group has warned {that a} new WHO settlement on how nations reply to pandemics will result in repeated lock down-style restrictions.
His warning comes because the WHO prepares for talks in Geneva on Monday to finalize a sweeping pandemic treaty that goals to cowl surveillance programs, pathogen sharing and speedy vaccine rollout targets.
Dr David Bell, a former WHO scientific officer and lead creator of a brand new report, mentioned the system may steer the UK and different nations again towards Covid-era measures. These embrace faculty and enterprise closures, masks mandates, quarantines and large-scale vaccination campaigns—steps that weren’t a part of commonplace pandemic planning earlier than 2020.
MSN studies: He mentioned: “It’s inevitable that we’ll find yourself in repeated lockdowns due to how the system is about up.”
Dr Bell warned that the elevated WHO funding, which is particularly earmarked for expanded pandemic risk surveillance and rapid-response triggers may escalate potential threats extra rapidly into full-scale interventions.
The UK is without doubt one of the largest contributors to the WHO, committing tons of of tens of millions by direct funding and worldwide partnerships. The authors of the report say which means British taxpayers are serving to fund a pandemic response they could later be subjected to once more.
They’re calling for the WHO utterly overhauled or “changed by an organisation higher capable of serve nation wants.”.
Their new report – by the Worldwide Well being Reform Challenge – requires reform of the WHO, arguing it’s too closely tied to pandemic risk response programmes reminiscent of vaccines and diagnostics, formed by a comparatively small group of highly effective public, non-public and public-private funders.
The report highlights how large-scale contributions to the WHO are continuously channelled into focused initiatives – notably vaccines, diagnostics and surveillance programs – with a big proportion of funding earmarked for particular goals somewhat than broader well being wants which may save extra lives.
Critics say this focus of funding dangers aligning international well being priorities with the pursuits and fashions of its main funding companions, somewhat than broader well being outcomes – and will additionally imply threats are recognized and acted on extra rapidly by expanded surveillance programs.
Dr Bell, former director of the Invoice Gates funded growth laboratory- the World Good Fund, mentioned: “The British taxpayer is funding a system that’s on the lookout for theoretical threats that may then be used to justify locking them down and making them pay for vaccines.”
He added: “It might be higher that they put extra money into the NHS.”
Co-author Professor Garrett Wallace Brown, a present WHO advisor and international public well being knowledgeable at Leeds College, mentioned funding flows are shaping international well being priorities.
He mentioned: “These giant sums of cash from non-public organisations and from authorities organisations have skewed the agenda.”
He added: “If you happen to’re pumping within the largest donations to technical options, surveillance and vaccines it’s inevitable you’ll have little alternative however to do what’s specified for it. It’s primary economics.”
They are saying this creates a system the place what will get funded – and what produces measurable outcomes – more and more drives decision-making, somewhat than what delivers the best total well being influence.
