Prof Dr Axel R. Pries, president of the World Health Summit in Berlin, told Euronews that global health must once again be treated as a team sport. Many countries now view health “from a very national, sometimes even nationalist perspective,” he said. He called that outlook a “political virus.” It’s spreading across the whole world.
Pries is a physician and physiologist who previously served as dean and board member of Charité. He’s been president of the World Health Summit for six years. The “political virus” line isn’t new for him: he used it at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi in April 2026, about six months ago. “We don’t have the virus, but we have a political virus,” he said then. He told Euronews that national and nationalist framings of health are “a major obstacle to good solutions.”
Nationalist Health Policy
The summit interview names nationalism as the problem, but doesn’t say who gets left outside the national frame. Pries pointed to the Covid pandemic as the clear lesson. “You cannot tackle problems purely at local level,” he said, adding that this applies to mental health, non-communicable diseases and other areas. “That is why we need to revive multilateral mechanisms and give them fresh momentum.”
He was blunt about one American policy. Pries criticised the bilateral health-data agreements at the core 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. He argued that an overarching framework the WHO can implement is the only way to create fair conditions.
Europe’s Leading Role
On the partial US withdrawal from global health policy, Pries said Europe shouldn’t lead, but “should be one of the leading actors – and it absolutely has what it takes.” He cited Europe as a hub for medical innovation. Days ago, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to researchers from Berlin and Würzburg for work on optogenetics. He also pointed to Europe’s experience of cooperation among countries with different political and social systems.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, can assume a certain leadership role, he said, but only as part of a wider ensemble with others such as France and the United Kingdom. He named Denmark and Novo as examples of large European companies. His warning was direct: “If we fail now to agree on common strategies, things will become very, very difficult.” Europe, he said, shouldn’t allow strategic dependencies in health to emerge.
Who Is Inside the ‘Team’
Pries described a planned German Health Security Act as an important step toward pandemic preparedness. A draft is due for discussion in early 2027, next year. But he said health issues can only be solved through multilateral partnership. “No country today can produce medicines or vaccines entirely on its own,” he said. Ideally, production would happen under the WHO umbrella.
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. The UN system’s last major reform came after the Second World War. He said he hoped multilateralism could be promoted this time “purely out of a sense of insight.”
The interview frames the stakes as another pandemic. “We do not want to face a Covid pandemic every five years,” Pries said. Yet his remarks don’t address whether the multilateral framework he’s calling for would cover people who cross European borders, or those who die trying to. The team he describes consists of states and companies. Who gets health protection when national frames prevail remains unanswered.