Could failure to stop Covid-19 be the catalyst for a pandemic treaty?

Name: Covid-19 pandemic ‘long way from over’ says WHO, as global infections continue to grow
Uploaded: 2021-05-24T04:00:17.000Z
Duration: 4 min 21 s
Description: Covid-19 pandemic ‘long way from over’ says WHO, as global infections continue to grow

With WHO meeting set to receive reports detailing failures of existing systems, some are calling for a treaty to coordinate nations and agencies

A treaty could include monitoring of pandemic readiness akin to weapons inspections, and sharing of data and vaccines – but China and US aren’t on board yet

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A pandemic treaty could give more powers to the WHO, experts said. Photo: Reuters

Simone McCarthy

Published: 12:00pm, 24 May 2021Updated: 4:03pm, 24 May 2021

Global crises have often given rise to sweeping changes. The United Nations was ushered in after the world wars. The G7 and G20 blocs formed in the wake of major financial crises. Now the question is whether Covid-19 will spark the creation of a powerful new treaty.

The idea for a pandemic treaty, pushed forward by a small group of world leaders and the World Health Organization (WHO) in recent months, could get its first test this week at an annual meeting of the 194 countries that make up the UN agency.

Details so far are thin, but such a treaty could go so far as to set up international monitoring for pandemic readiness akin to weapons inspections, and give far more weighty enforcement powers to the WHO, according to prominent public health voices and other experts. It could also codify global sharing of data, pathogens, medicines and vaccines.

Supporters say the gravity of the Covid-19 crisis, in which at least 3.4 million lives have been lost and trillions of dollars have been wiped off the global economy, justifies sweeping reform via a binding treaty.

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Covid-19 pandemic ‘long way from over’ says WHO, as global infections continue to grow

“Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion,” 25 heads of governments and international agencies spearheading the treaty wrote in a letter in March.

“Pandemic preparedness needs global leadership for a global health system fit for this millennium,” wrote the leaders from the European Union, Britain, Germany, Korea, Kenya, South Africa and Indonesia, among others.