It is vital we agree a global pact on pandemics to prevent the devastation caused by covid-19
The proposed international agreement represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect all of us, as well as our children and grandchildren, from a repeat of the covid-19 pandemic, with its recorded death toll of seven million.
A breakthrough toward global cooperation to prevent future pandemics is possible in the next few days.
Negotiations on the proposed text of a new global pandemic accord are scheduled to end this Friday, May 10, and discussions on completing and updating international health regulations are scheduled for May 16-17.
The plan is to finalise both processes at the 77th World Health Assembly, which starts on May 27.
The proposed international agreement represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect all of us, as well as our children and grandchildren, from a repeat of the covid-19 pandemic, with its recorded death toll of seven million — the actual figure may be three times higher.
Only a strong global pact on pandemics can safeguard the world from a recurrence of the widespread social and economic devastation that covid-19 caused.
We must prevent the kind of failures of international collaboration that frustrated recovery efforts from that episode.
To that end, the agreements under discussion envision a new international legal instrument to provide for equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.
The aim of this global framework is to ensure that when another pandemic threat does arise, all relevant responses — from identifying and reporting on risky pathogens, to delivering tools like tests and vaccines on an equitable basis — are implemented quickly and effectively.
The draft pandemic agreement is a kind of nonproliferation accord: a declaration we will help each other and work together in the event of a new public-health crisis.
The overarching lesson from the covid-19 pandemic — one that we learned the hard way — is that no one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere.
Global health security is possible only if we build robust defenses against all pathogens with pandemic potential.
We are only as strong as our weakest link, and by making global health equity an essential element of any new framework, we will have done our best to ensure the chain has no weak links.
As we enter the final days of negotiation, we should recall the darkest days of the covid-19 crisis, when all countries declared that we must never again allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to pandemics.
This is especially important now, because just when governments are working tirelessly to conclude negotiations for a safer future, a torrent of misinformation and fake news has been unleashed to undermine the push for the new treaty.
We must resist this flood of propaganda.
Among the flagrant falsehoods being circulated are that the World Health Organization has already abandoned the treaty and is giving up on it.
But the main attack is that the WHO would be empowered to strip member states of sovereignty, monitor people’s movements through digital passports, and deploy armed troops to enforce mandatory vaccinations and lockdowns.
In fact, the WHO would not be able to exert far-reaching authority over countries and their citizens during a public-health emergency, and the organization itself is not interested in pursuing a power grab.
While the negotiations aim for a global pact, they are being spearheaded by individual countries.
It is not the WHO but national governments that are negotiating, and it is not WHO officials but government ministers who will be tasked with meeting the agreement’s requirements.
Moreover, the current draft agreement explicitly stresses “the principle of sovereignty of States in addressing public health matters”.
Amid today’s wars and conflicts — with millions facing hunger, displacement, and ill health — people around the world are desperate for a reason to be optimistic once again.
They want assurances the future will not simply be a rerun of the past.
The pandemic accord both recognises and demonstrates that we live in a deeply interconnected world.
We must be prepared to share each other’s challenges, even (or especially) in difficult times.
Establishing a binding commitment to effective multilateral action will show that in health (as well as in climate security and humanitarian responses), global cooperation can deliver the solutions that the world so desperately needs.
- Gordon Brown, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is UN special envoy for global education and chair of Education Cannot Wait
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
