Speaking for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Maarten’s VSA minister called for stronger disease surveillance, sustained health funding and an agreement that would support fair access to vaccines, tests and treatments.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (VSA) Claret Connor has warned that governments must prepare for another pandemic now, rather than wait until an infectious disease emergency overwhelms health systems.
“The question is not if there will be a next pandemic, because there will be. The question is whether we will be ready for it,” Connor said in a statement delivered on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at a high-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Connor pointed to outbreaks of Hantavirus, Mpox and Ebola as reminders that infectious disease threats remain real. He said the time since COVID-19 has not reduced the urgency of preparing health systems to detect and contain future threats.
His statement also expressed the Kingdom’s disappointment with the pace of international negotiations. Member States had not agreed on a common political outcome for the high-level meeting, he said, while negotiations on an annex to the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement remained unfinished after a year of talks.
The Kingdom welcomed the adoption of the agreement’s basic text, Connor said, but wants negotiators to conclude an effective and equitable Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing annex, known as PABS. The annex concerns the arrangements needed to share pathogens and the benefits arising from their use. Connor said completing it would allow legal procedures to begin toward making the pandemic treaty a reality.
For Sint Maarten, he argued, international cooperation is immediate. His statement called for equitable access to vaccines, diagnostic tests and treatments, and for countries to help one another regardless of size.
“From the biggest countries to the small island states such as my home country, St. Maarten,” Connor said, describing the reach that cooperation must have.
Detect threats before they spread
Connor urged governments to invest in monitoring, surveillance and early-warning systems. He called for a One Health approach, which examines risks across human health, animal health and the environment, including diseases that can pass between animals and people.
He also identified antimicrobial resistance and environmental risks as threats public-health systems must watch. Effective preparation, he said, requires connected capacity at local, national, regional and global levels so authorities can act before an outbreak escalates.
The minister said preparedness cannot depend on emergency measures introduced after a crisis begins. It requires continuing political commitment and reliable financing even when no pandemic dominates the news.
Connor reaffirmed the Kingdom’s support for an adequately resourced World Health Organization at the center of global health cooperation. Political differences in negotiations, he said, must not prevent countries from carrying out their shared responsibility to prepare.
The statement did not announce a new Sint Maarten pandemic budget, surveillance program or timetable for local measures. It set out the Kingdom’s position in the international discussions and made Connor’s central warning clear: governments still have time to strengthen their health systems, but they must use it.
“What we need is the political courage to act and reinforce the resilience of our health systems before the next crisis forces us to,” Connor said.
