Home Social Sciences “We Must Not Be Caught Sleeping.” Pandemic Futures, the WHO, and Global Preparedness Plans in the 1990s and Early 2000s
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

“We Must Not Be Caught Sleeping.” Pandemic Futures, the WHO, and Global Preparedness Plans in the 1990s and Early 2000s

  • Jonathan Voges EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 2, 2024

Abstract

Preparing for the next pandemic became not only a national task, but a problem with international, even global dimensions. No single nation on its own is able to stop the next pandemic; no borders are strong enough to keep microbial threats outside the nation-state’s territory. This essay focuses on the role of the WHO in pandemic preparedness planning in the 1990s and early 2000s: What vision of the global future did the international organization follow and design? What measures did it propose to reduce risks? What narratives did it use to define its own role in these processes?


Corresponding author: Jonathan Voges, Leibniz University of Hannover Faculty of Humanities, Hannover 30167, Germany, E-mail:

References

Abraham, T. 2009. “Risk and Outbreak Communication. Lessons from Alternative Paradigms.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87: 604–7. https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.08.058149.Search in Google Scholar

Altman, L. K. 1994. “The Doctor’s World: Infectious Diseases on the Rebound in the U.S., a Report Says.” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/10/science/the-doctor-s-world-infectious-diseases-on-the-rebound-in-the-us-a-report-says.html.Search in Google Scholar

Böschen, S., and K. Kastenhofer. 2007. Schlussbericht des Projektes: Nichtwissenskulturen. Analysen zum Umgang mit Nichtwissen im Spannungsfeld von epistemischen Kulturen und gesellschaftlichen Gestaltungsöffentlichkeiten. Augsburg: self-published.Search in Google Scholar

Chan, M. 2009. “Concern over Flu Pandemic Justified.” Statement of the World Health Assembly June 18.Search in Google Scholar

Collier, S. J., and A. Lakoff. 2015. “Vital Systems Security. Reflexive Biopolitics and the Government of Emergency.” Theory, Culture & Society 32 (2): 19–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276413510050.Search in Google Scholar

Collier, S. J. 2008. “Enacting Catastrophe. Preparedness, Insurance, Budgetary Rationalization.” Economy and Society 37: 224–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140801933280.Search in Google Scholar

Danzon, M. 2006. “History’s Humbling Lessons.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 84: 88–89.Search in Google Scholar

Doshi, P. 2009. “How Should We Plan for Pandemics?” BMJ 339: 603–5.10.1136/bmj.b3471Search in Google Scholar

Eckel, J. 2020. “Politik der Globalisierung. Clinton, Blair, Schröder und die Neuerfindung der Welt in den 1990er Jahren und 2000er Jahren.” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 68: 451–80. https://doi.org/10.1515/vfzg-2020-0027.Search in Google Scholar

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 2005. Interim Document. Technical Guidance on Generic Preparedness Planning for Public Health Emergencies. Brussels: ECDC.Search in Google Scholar

ECDC. 2007. “Report for Policymakers.” In Pandemic Preparedness in the European Union. Autumn. Solna: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

Fidler, D. P. 1996. “Globalization, International Law, and Emerging Infectious Diseases.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 2: 77–84. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0202.960201.Search in Google Scholar

Fineberg, H. V., and M. E. Wilson. 2009. “Epidemic Science in Real Time.” Science 11: 987. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1176297.Search in Google Scholar

Frenk, J., J. Sepúlveda, O. Gómez-Dantés, M. J. McGuinness, and F. Knaul. 1997. “The New World Order and International Health.” British Journal of Medicine 314: 1404–7. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7091.1404.Search in Google Scholar

Fried, E., and B. Niewand. 2017. “Bedrohte Ordnungen’ als Thema der Kulturwissenschaften.” Journal of Modern European History 15: 5–15.Search in Google Scholar

Garrett, L. 1995. The Coming Plague. Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. London: Penguin.Search in Google Scholar

Garrett, L. 2000. “Betrayal of Trust.” In The Collapse of Global Public Health. New York. Hyperion.Search in Google Scholar

Garrett, L. 2005. “The Next Pandemic.” Foreign Affairs 84: 3–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/20034417.Search in Google Scholar

Godlee, F. 1994. “WHO in Crisis.” British Journal of Medicine 309: 1424–28, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.309.6966.1424.Search in Google Scholar

Hannig, N. 2017. “Die Zukunft als Gefahr. Katastrophenschutz im 20. Jahrhundert.” In Die Zukunft des 20. Jahrhunderts. Dimensionen einer historischen Zukunftsforschung, edited by L. Hölscher, 253–77. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.Search in Google Scholar

Henderson, D. A. 1987. “Small Pox Eradication: A WHO Success Story.” World Health Forum 8: 283–92.Search in Google Scholar

Heymann, D. 2005. “The Global Infectíous Disease Situation.” Nova Acta Leopoldina NF 92: 27–33.Search in Google Scholar

Heymann, D. L., and R. G. Rodier. 1998. “Global Surveillance of Communicable Diseases.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 4: 362–65, https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0403.980305.Search in Google Scholar

Hölscher, L. 2009. “Historische Zukunftsforschung. Zur Einführung in ein neues Forschungsfeld.” In Semantik der Leere. Grenzfragen der Geschichtswissenschaft, edited by L. Hölscher, 131–56. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar

Hölscher, L. 2016. “Heute war damals keine Zukunft. Dimensionen einer Historischen Zukunftsforschung im 20. Jahrhundert.” In Die Ungewissheit des Zukünftigen. Kontingenz in der Geschichte, edited by F. Becker, B. Scheller, and U. Schneider, 79–94. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.Search in Google Scholar

Hölscher, L. 2017. “Vorsorge als Zukunftshandeln. Versuch einer theoretischen Bilanzierung im Hinblick auf die Geschichte der Zukunft.” In Vorsorgen in der Moderne. Akteure, Räume und Praktiken, edited by N. Hannig, and M. Thießen, 233–42. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110529524-012Search in Google Scholar

Horn, E. 2014. Die Zukunft als Katastrophe. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer.Search in Google Scholar

Horton, R. 2020. The Covid-19 Catastrophe. What’s Gone Wrong and How to Stop it Happening Again. Cambridge: Polity.Search in Google Scholar

Institute of Medicine. 1992. Microbial Threats to Health in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Medicine.Search in Google Scholar

Koselleck, R. 1979. “Erfahrungsraum’ und ‘Erwartungshorizont’ – zwei historische Kategorien.” In Vergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten, 349–74. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, A. 2007. “Preparing for the Next Pandemic.” Public Culture 19: 247–71. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-035.Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, A. 2008. “The Generic Biothreat, or, How We Became Unprepared.” Cultural Anthropology 23: 399–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00013.x.Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, A. 2015. “Global Health Security and the Pathogenic Imaginary.” In Dreamscapes of Modernity. Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power, edited by S. Jasanoff, and S.-H. Kim, 300–20. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226276663.003.0014Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, A., and S. J. Collier. 2010. “Infrastructure and Event: The Political Technology of Preparedness.” In Political Matter. Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life, edited by B. Braun, 243–66. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar

Lederberg, J. 1988. “Medical Science, Infectious Disease, and the Unity of Humankind.” JAMA 260: 684–85, https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1988.03410050104039.Search in Google Scholar

Lee, K., and T. Pang. 2014. “WHO: Retirement or Reinvention?” Public Health 128: 119–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2013.08.002.Search in Google Scholar

Legters, L. J., L. H. Brinl, and E. T. Takafuji. 1993. “Are We Prepared for a Viral Epidemic Emergency?” In Emerging Viruses, edited by S. Morse, 269–82. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195074444.003.0026Search in Google Scholar

Mongoven, A. 2006. “The War on Disease and the War on Terror: A Dangerous Metaphorical Nexus?” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 15: 403–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963180106060518.Search in Google Scholar

Naik, G. 2003. “Forget SARS: WHO Expert Says He Fears the Flu More.” Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105416643049230100.Search in Google Scholar

National Intelligence Council. 2000. The Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States. Washington, D.C.: National Intelligence Council.Search in Google Scholar

Osterholm, M. T. 2005. “Preparing for the Next Pandemic.” New England Journal of Medicine 352 (18): 1839–42. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp058068.Search in Google Scholar

Roth, K. H. 2022. Blinde Passagiere. Die Coronakrise und die Folgen. Munich: Antje Kunstmann.Search in Google Scholar

Wade, N. 1994. “Method and Madness. The Next Plague and the Next.” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/25/magazine/method-and-madness-the-next-plague-and-the-next.html.Search in Google Scholar

Wehling, P., and S. Böschen. 2015. “Nichtwissenskulturen und Nichtwissensdiskurse. Zur Einführung in das Buch.” In Nichtwissenskulturen und Nichtwissensdiskurse. Über den Umgang mit Nichtwissen in Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit, edited by P. Wehling, and S. Böschen, 9–20. Baden-Baden: Nomos.10.5771/9783845251967-9Search in Google Scholar

WHO Regional Office for Europe/European Commission. 2006. Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning. Report on the Second Joint WHO/European Commission Workshop, Copenhagen, 24-26 October 2005. Geneva: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

World Health Organization, Executive Board. 1993. Report of the Executive Board Working Group on the WHO Response to Global Change. Geneva: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

World Health Organization, Executive Board. 1997. 101st Session: Review of the Constitution and Regional Arrangements of the World Health Organization. Geneva: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

WHO. 1996. The World Health Report 1996. Fighting Disease, Fostering Development. Geneva: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

WHO. 2009. Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response. A WHO Guidance Document. Geneva: WHO.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-03-10
Accepted: 2024-03-10
Published Online: 2024-04-02

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 6.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ngs-2024-0013/html
Scroll to top button