"We don't have the virus, but we have a political virus." Prof Dr Axel R. Pries chose those words about six months ago at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi. Now, he's repeating the warning in Berlin. The president of the World Health Summit (WHS) told Euronews that, in a world of multiple crises, global health must once again be treated as a team sport, with Europe, built on the EU framework, playing a leading role.
A Political Virus
Pries is a physician and physiologist who previously served as dean and board member of Charité. He has led the Berlin summit for six years. His diagnosis is blunt. "We are dealing with a global situation in which many countries are looking at health increasingly from a very national, sometimes even nationalist perspective," he said. In his view, that attitude is spreading across the whole world and stands as a major obstacle to good solutions.
The lesson of Covid, he says, hasn't been absorbed. "The Covid pandemic was a clear sign that you cannot tackle problems purely at local level – and that also applies to many other areas, including mental health, NCDs (non-communicable diseases) and others," Pries said. "That is why we need to revive multilateral mechanisms and give them fresh momentum."
Europe's Role After the US Retreat
Asked about the partial withdrawal of the United States from global health policy, Pries avoided overreaching. "I would not say that Europe should be the leader. But Europe should be one of the leading actors – and it absolutely has what it takes."
He pointed to evidence. Europe is a hub for medical innovation, he said, and just days ago, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to researchers from Berlin and Würzburg for work on optogenetics. Europe also has deep experience in cooperation between countries with different political and social systems. Germany, Europe's largest economy, can assume a certain leadership role, Pries said, but only as part of a wider ensemble with others such as France and the United Kingdom. He cited Denmark and Novo as examples of large European companies.
The stakes are practical. "If we fail now to agree on common strategies, things will become very, very difficult," Pries said. Europe, he added, shouldn't allow strategic dependencies in health to emerge.
The Policy Gap
Germany is preparing a Health Security Act, with a draft due to be discussed in early 2027. Pries called it an important step toward pandemic preparedness. Still, he said, countries can solve health issues only through multilateral partnership. "No country today can produce medicines or vaccines entirely on its own," he said, adding that it would be ideal if this happened under the WHO umbrella.
He sharply criticized bilateral health-data agreements, a core element of the America First Global Health Strategy. "You cannot claim on the one hand that you are always first and on the other that you are building partnerships," he said. In his view, the only way to create fair conditions is an overarching framework the WHO can implement.
Reform, Not Retreat
Pries didn't dismiss calls to change the WHO. He said WHO reform would be welcome, but it shouldn't come under the influence of the idea that multilateral structures are no longer wanted. He noted that the UN system's last major reform came after the Second World War. He hopes multilateralism can be promoted this time "purely out of a sense of insight."
His closing line was plain. "Global health is a team sport," he said. "We do not want to face a Covid pandemic every five years."
Why This Matters:
Pries's argument lands as health policy is being pulled toward national and bilateral deals. His warning: no single country can make its own medicines or vaccines, and fragmented arrangements risk leaving poorer countries with weaker protection. For Europe, the question is whether the EU can turn its research strength and its record of cooperation across different political systems into a credible health-security role as the US steps back. Germany's Health Security Act, due for discussion in early 2027, will show how far Berlin is willing to anchor national preparedness in a wider European and WHO framework. The cost of failing to agree on common strategies, from this perspective, is measured in people's exposure to the next pandemic, not in diplomatic points.