Is the world ready for the next pandemic?

Medical workers take swab samples from residents to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus, in a street in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on May 15, 2020. [AFP]

An awkward question remains five years after Covid-19 began its deadly rampage: is the world ready to handle the next pandemic?

The World Health Organization, which was at the heart of the pandemic response, has been galvanising efforts to determine where the next threat might come from and to ensure the planet is ready to face it.