Vaccines are security policy

The world is facing a serious paradox: while the risk of new pandemics is increasing, political will—not least in the United States—to invest in global health preparedness is weakening.

The ongoing Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the DR Congo is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, demonstrating how quickly a local health crisis can become an international security challenge. The virus has spread in a region marked by conflict, displaced people, and weak health systems, and the WHO has declared the outbreak an international public health emergency.

Viruses originating in nature are not the only pandemic threat we face. War, conflict, and new technology are also lowering the threshold for countries or terrorist groups to develop viruses as weapons. According to the Norwegian Intelligence Service's latest threat assessment , the "opportunity space for biological weapons" is being revolutionized by advanced biotechnology and AI.

When the government discusses Norwegian security policy and charts a new course for development policy through "Project Turning Point," global health preparedness should be a central priority. And Norway should invest more.

The Covid-19 pandemic showed us that vaccines save lives and provide governments with room to maneuver and societies with stability. But vaccines only work if they are developed in time—and if they actually reach those who need them most. This is the problem the world is now facing in the DR Congo: there is still no approved vaccine or specific treatment for this type of Ebola.

So-called platform technologies, such as the mRNA platform behind the Covid-19 vaccines and viral vector platforms used in other vaccines, now make it possible to develop vaccines much faster than before. But only if investments are made in advance in research, clinical development, production readiness, and regulatory processes.

The Bundibugyo outbreak is also a concrete example of why vaccine preparedness must be built around entire virus families, not just individual viruses. We do not know which variant will trigger the next crisis. Therefore, the world must create a library of vaccine candidates, laboratory networks, clinical trial platforms, and production capacity that can be activated in days and weeks—not months and years.

Norwegian research communities have much to contribute here. Among other things, Norwegian researchers have made a breakthrough in delivering vaccines as nasal drops, thereby knocking out viruses at the point of entry. In this way, vaccines protect not only against disease but also against transmitting it to others.

We have war in Europe, and Norway leads NATO's work on health security. Norwegian contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO), the vaccine alliance Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the pandemic coalition CEPI are not just charity, but central components of our security policy.

CEPI was established after the Ebola epidemic in West Africa precisely because the world had reacted too late. Today's outbreak shows that this lesson remains urgently relevant.

Most countries in Europe are in a challenging economic situation. Nevertheless, the alternative to strengthening global and national health security is more expensive. Statistics Norway has estimated the economic loss for Norway during the Covid-19 pandemic at over 300 billionkroner in Norway. Globally, the economic losses amounted to tens of thousands of billions of kroner.

Norway is a small country, but we have significant room for maneuver and a stronger economy than many others. In an increasingly turbulent world, it is precisely countries like ours that must maintain global health investments. Not out of idealism alone, but out of responsibility and wisdom.

Investments in CEPI, Gavi, and other global health actors are investments in preparedness and security: in vaccines, technology, production capacity, and systems to fight back against new outbreaks. Because the next pandemic is coming – we just don't know whenor where. The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo reminds us that it can start far from Norway, yet still affect us rapidly.