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UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur Rahman

The high‑level session highlighted WHO’s ten new initiatives, the $10 trillion economic toll of COVID‑19 and a broader agenda covering wars, disasters and artificial intelligence.

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UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur Rahman

What this story says

  • The UN General Assembly held a high‑level meeting on pandemic preparedness six years after COVID‑19 began, convened by Assembly President Khalilur Rahman.
  • WHO Director‑General Tedros said the world was not ready for the next pandemic in a 2017 Columbia University speech.
  • WHO announced ten initiatives such as the Pandemic Fund and a Berlin hub to strengthen global health security.
  • The meeting’s agenda also covered wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization and artificial intelligence.

Who covered it

Left 43%(16)Centre 43%(16)Right 14%(5)

Percentages are shares of the 37 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 16 of the 53 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

72/100

Craft

85/100

Hype

15/100

53 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 5 of the 37 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

The United Nations General Assembly gathered its leaders on 25 September 2026 for a high‑level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Assembly President Khalilur Rahman opened the session and set an agenda that included not only health security but also wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization and artificial intelligence.

In his opening remarks, WHO Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled a 2017 speech at Columbia University where he said the world was not ready for the next pandemic. He noted that COVID‑19 caused more than 20 million excess deaths and wiped over US$10 trillion from the global economy.

Tedros outlined ten WHO initiatives aimed at strengthening global health security. The list includes a Pandemic Fund partnered with the World Bank, a WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, the Access to COVID‑19 Tools Accelerator, COVAX, an interim Medical Countermeasures Network, an mRNA technology transfer programme in South Africa, a Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative in South Korea, the WHO BioHub in Switzerland and a Global Health Emergency Corps.

Member states also adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations and a WHO Pandemic Agreement, both intended to reinforce legal frameworks for future health emergencies.

“"No one is safe until everyone is safe."”

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director‑General

$10 trillion

Economic loss from COVID‑19

Estimated impact on the global economy according to WHO statements

What the coverage left out

None of the left‑rated reports mention the WHO Director‑General’s 2017 speech or the ten WHO initiatives, including the Pandemic Fund and the Berlin hub. Likewise, the right‑rated digest does not refer to those WHO initiatives or the $10 trillion economic impact.

Coverage settled. We checked this 29 times and stopped on 1 Oct 2026, 14:45. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

16 rated outlets

  • All ten left‑rated digests reported that the UN meeting sought to keep the risk of another worldwide disease emergency on the global agenda. They highlighted the six‑year gap since COVID‑19, noted that wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization and artificial intelligence now dominate the discussion, and described the meeting as facing a "speed bump" in building momentum for pandemic preparedness.

Centre

16 rated outlets

  • The twelve centre‑rated reports, including the full AllAfrica article, carried the full set of WHO statements. They emphasized Tedros’ 2017 warning, the $10 trillion economic toll, the more than 20 million excess deaths, and detailed the ten WHO initiatives such as the Pandemic Fund and the Berlin hub. They also mentioned the broader agenda items, wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization and artificial intelligence, and quoted the Assembly President Khalilur Rahman’s role in convening the meeting.

Right

5 rated outlets

  • The Madison Courier, Marietta Daily Journal and Jonesboro Sun digests each led on the UN General Assembly's effort to keep pandemic preparedness on the agenda six years after COVID-19, noting that Assembly President Khalilur Rahman convened the meeting and that the initiative is encountering a speed bump.
  • Latestly and aninews.in digests led on Health Secretary Punya Srivastava's remarks at the New York meeting, describing India's plans to expand laboratory networks, improve emergency coordination, strengthen the health workforce, increase stockpiles and boost clinical-care capacity. None of the right-rated digests mention any cost estimate or funding details.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur…?
Of the 37 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 43% are rated left, 43% are rated centre, 14% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 53. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 37 rated outlets on this story, 43% are rated left, 43% are rated centre, 14% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur… biased?
UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur Rahman is one event reported by 53 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered UN General Assembly meeting on pandemic preparedness led by Khalilur…?
53 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did the WHO Director‑General say about pandemic readiness?
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled a 2017 Columbia University speech where he said the world was not ready for the next pandemic. He repeated the warning at the UN meeting, stressing that preparedness remains insufficient.
How many initiatives did WHO announce to strengthen health security?
WHO listed ten initiatives, including a Pandemic Fund with the World Bank, a Berlin hub for pandemic intelligence, the Access to COVID‑19 Tools Accelerator, COVAX, an interim Medical Countermeasures Network, an mRNA technology transfer programme in South Africa, a Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative in South Korea, the WHO BioHub in Switzerland and a Global Health Emergency Corps.
What other topics were on the UN meeting agenda?
The agenda covered wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization and artificial intelligence alongside pandemic preparedness, reflecting a broader set of global challenges that now compete for attention at the high‑level session.
Which side of coverage mentioned the economic cost of COVID‑19?
Only the centre‑rated reports, including the AllAfrica full article, cited the estimate that COVID‑19 wiped over US$10 trillion from the global economy; left and right digests did not include that figure.

Read it at the source

54 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

16
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Centre

16
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Right

5

Not rated

17
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How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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