Opinion: What’s missing from the WHO Pandemic Treaty
Fixing the root causes of vaccine inequity requires long-term investments in manufacturing, regulation, and market incentives.
Next week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, 193 member countries of the World Health Organization (with the U.S. notably absent) are expected to adopt the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Agreement, also known as the Pandemic Treaty. In anticipation of its adoption, the final agreement has been celebrated as a triumph of multilateralism. The co-chairs of the negotiations described the agreement as a plan to “protect future generations from the suffering and losses [experienced] during the COVID-19 pandemic” and to ensure that in the next pandemic, “the response will be faster, more effective and more equitable.”
But after three years of negotiation, the agreement does little to solve the very problem it set out to address: the lethal delay low‑ and some middle‑income countries face in getting access to vaccines, tests, and treatments when a new pathogen strikes.
