Lecture in Vienna – Rendi-Wagner: “The next pandemic is coming”

“The foundation for overcoming the next pandemic must be laid today,” the public health expert said. Since mid-June 2024, the former Health Minister and ex-SPÖ leader has been head of the Stockholm office, which the EU has entrusted with additional agendas in 2022, which is responsible for the Member States, but also indirectly through intensive contacts with similar offices in other countries and parts of the world (e.g. CDC/US, Canada, China, Japan, ASEAN countries, CDC/Africa) should make a significant contribution to public health worldwide.

“Without international cooperation in the field of infectious diseases, we are half blind,” said Rendi-Wagner. The concept of ‘One Health’, in which aspects of veterinary medicine and human medicine are considered together, closes ‘blind spots’. A current example is the spread of H5N1 bird flu in the US and Canada, where the pathogens have invaded livestock farming, including milk production.

“We need more trust from the population”
Overall, according to the expert, it is important to learn lessons from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and develop measures that will allow countries and the world as a whole to be better prepared than was the case in 2019/2020. “We have to go faster. We need to work together better. We need more confidence from the population,” said Rendi-Wagner.

Interestingly, the ECDC – actually using the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC/Atlanta) as a model – was founded twenty years ago based on the then experience with SARS. “In 2022, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, our ECDC was strengthened by important EU decisions and given a new mandate in the fight against infectious diseases. We not only describe the cases, but now also assess the situation and have had to develop recommendations and guidelines,” explains the director of the ECDC.

Better integration of different data sources
Monitoring epidemiological developments during the Covid-19 pandemic actually worked quite well. The goal should be better integration of different data sources, for example wastewater studies should be added.

“The goal is real-time surveillance, so that we know what is happening in which country and which region. If we can provide answers more quickly, this will also lead to more trust among the population.” Communication must become more transparent and understandable. Following the Austrian example, this involves merging data from the electronic patient file (ELGA) and the epidemiological reporting system (EMS) to monitor the epidemiological situation.

In any case, the ECDC has been provided with new agendas for the EU member states and cooperation partners. “For the first time, we can carry out missions in Member States and analyze the level of preparedness for a pandemic. Six Member States have already benefited from this,” said Rendi-Wagner. If desired, a team of ten to twelve experts from other Member States would carry out such an assessment locally in sixteen subject areas.

According to the ECDC director, our own ‘Health Task Forces’ as expert groups would also be increasingly active internationally. “We have been in Congo since the outbreak of Mpox (monkeypox; note). Only recently, Rwanda’s Minister of Health requested that an ECDC team be sent to assess the situation surrounding an outbreak of the Marburg virus in this country. confirm the end of the outbreak. Moreover, in the Western Balkans, with the EU accession countries there, in Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine, we are helping to strengthen public health so that we can approach EU status.

“Threat to social cohesion”
But regaining and strengthening people’s trust is very important. “The pandemic has shown us how quickly public trust can be lost – in politics, in science, in medicine. Before the crisis you need trust. But you only trust someone you know. This requires clear and effective communication with people. We should not hide behind our scientific language,” said the expert.

According to Rendi-Wagner, the biggest public health issues, aside from preparing for a possible next pandemic, are two: “Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats we face.” But declining vaccination rates against easily preventable infectious diseases is extremely worrying in many EU countries.

Make no mistake: “Every health crisis and every pandemic not only threatens people’s health and lives. They also pose a threat to the cohesion of society,” said Rendi-Wagner.