{"id":50140,"date":"2021-04-26T17:04:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=50140"},"modified":"2021-05-06T16:23:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T15:23:28","slug":"what-should-we-ask-of-a-new-global-treaty-for-pandemic-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/04\/26\/what-should-we-ask-of-a-new-global-treaty-for-pandemic-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"What should we ask of a new global treaty for pandemic preparedness?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Supra-national health action agencies<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are needed in every WHO region or continent, to predict, prevent and respond to pandemics<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twenty five of the world\u2019s leaders recently called for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/commentaries\/detail\/op-ed---covid-19-shows-why-united-action-is-needed-for-more-robust-international-health-architecture\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a new global treaty for pandemic preparedness and response<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the future. Joe Biden, President of the US, recently asked US Congress for funding for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/news-opinion\/president-biden-proposes-the-creation-of-two-darpa-like-agencies-68660?utm_campaign=TS_DAILY_NEWSLETTER_2021&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsmi=121141088&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_p8xjL3RqymIP6c9C5S0QfhNkKsFp3_9qc-fascTJqD2K7hShzB5qy17QkX8fjglpN1JU0J3YcOsAEDinaNH8hugduXg&amp;utm_content=121141088&amp;utm_source=hs_email\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">two agencies to tackle health and climate change<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The UK government has invoked a term first proposed by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.undp.org\/content\/undp\/en\/home\/librarypage\/hdr\/human-development-report-1994.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">UN in 1994<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">health security, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the new incarnation of its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/transforming-the-public-health-system\/transforming-the-public-health-system-reforming-the-public-health-system-for-the-challenges-of-our-times\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">national health protection service<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The European Union proposes a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/law\/better-regulation\/have-your-say\/initiatives\/12870-European-Health-Emergency-Preparedness-and-Response-Authority-HERA-\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Health Emergency Response Agency (HERA)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> set in the context of a wider <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/strategy\/priorities-2019-2024\/promoting-our-european-way-life\/european-health-union_en\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">European Health Union<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. There has long been a need for more <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/commissions\/planetary-health\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">concerted global action<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on climate change, migration and conflict, human trafficking, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/desa\/%E2%80%98inequality-virus%E2%80%99-threatens-%E2%80%98catastrophe-all%E2%80%99-unless-crisis-can-be-overcome-together\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">gross inequality in economic resources across the globe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Until now this has not been sufficiently compelling for politicians to take a world view. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.who.int\/iris\/bitstream\/handle\/10665\/311184\/9789241515320-eng.pdf?ua=1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pandemic flu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has for many years featured in national risk registers. Covid-19 appears to have finally brought the realisation that the 21<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> century could become the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipbes.net\/pandemics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">era of pandemics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This is prompting political calls for global machinery for response.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We should learn from the current pandemic to inform how our global leaders might fund and develop real tools to respond better to pandemics in the future, through a new treaty. Many of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/372\/bmj.n91\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">countries judged to be most well prepared for a pandemic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in 2018, have performed poorly. Many of their failures are attributable to political positions and indecision. Health systems were positioned in a bureaucratic-normative way, with a naive and arrogant view that they could accommodate the pandemic within existing healthcare capacity. There was little conceptual preparation for surveillance, response, or coordination of actions in the field, and in many cases a disconnect between local and national actions. There were no strategic reserves of personal protective equipment, nor significant hospital reserves (facilities and capacity). Governments were, and still are, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.isglobal.org\/healthisglobal\/-\/custom-blog-portlet\/reform-of-global-health-governance-regulations-ultimatum-from-covid-19-pandemic\/8000927\/12702\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">nationalistically centered,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> paying little attention to World Health Organization (WHO) or other international authorities. There has been limited knowledge transference and adoption of policies from the countries that had the earliest experience, and know more about SARS-CoV-like viruses and infectious diseases preparedness. There has also been little evidence that governments adopted the priorities of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.preventionweb.net\/files\/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sendai major disaster response framework 2015-2030<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> namely: understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster risk governance; investing in disaster risk reduction, and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to \u201cBuild Back Better\u201d in recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Investing in pandemic preparedness is beyond almost all countries&#8217; capabilities so must be thought out on a global scale. The WHO is the organization naturally dedicated to having these global competencies. However, to be able to address this issue, it is essential to greatly reinforce its human, financial, and technological resources. Our leaders need to propose the tools by which such a treaty would have meaningful resources to deliver on its aims.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We can consider pandemic response at &#8220;global,&#8221; &#8220;regional\/continental&#8221; and &#8220;national&#8221; levels. There is visible international agreement on what needs to happen on vaccines, but so far the distribution across the globe has been more about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/04\/16\/covid-19-vaccines-a-game-of-power-jabs\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">realpolitik<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/apr\/18\/patent-waiver-covid-vaccines-uk-variants?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">profiteering.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At a global level any new treaty on pandemic preparedness will need to be moved through tortuous processes to be ratified. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/372\/bmj.n527\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New UN treaties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> should, and can be applied to problems which are of global concern and growing significance. These cannot be managed by single nations. Current international regulations have proved inadequate for control or prevention. To back up a treaty, resources are needed to grow capacity and expertise in the organisations charged with global action on our behalf, principally United Nations Organisations, including the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/epdf\/10.1007\/s00038-020-01461-9?sharing_token=T8deaI7tJpjssRBrb2cs1_e4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY7DtifudbZ_v50Ovz9sp8loDymP-mEaGJZe-4YxMkW4l0e9Jo-I2wz3bwESnrH5Dul1nYowacqUGpZD2YJgYOn-Q7gANVWTPV56m9YxpxOy7PRP6N5uLBFL_3iKnUsUVvw%3D\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WHO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/devex.shorthandstories.com\/key-actors--who-is-leading-the-covid-19-aid-response-\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Governments must commit to new policies,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> new global governance, and invest in additional human resources, equipment, and services to make action happen. National leaders will need to be willing to cede authority to supranational structures and services, and to call on these themselves. Reliance on international assistance should not be minimal and be seen as a failure of the local political response. In the covid-19 pandemic, international reinforcements that existed were vestigial, for example, in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.euractiv.com\/section\/politics\/short_news\/germany-austria-spain-commission-to-help-portugal-deal-with-third-covid-wave\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the case of Portugal<\/span><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5957118\/india-covid-19-modi\/\">now India<\/a>. <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Governments also need to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12992-021-00673-9\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">share information fully and transparently,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the greater effectiveness of global pandemic response.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the WHO regional, or continental level, there needs to be a commitment to setting up hands-on supra-national health action agencies<\/span><b><i>. <\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These must be well resourced and able to mobilise in response to unfolding emergencies. They could be extended operational arms of WHO regional offices and related to UN capacity in other fields such as the Food and Agriculture Organisations and other international agencies. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/law\/better-regulation\/have-your-say\/initiatives\/12870-European-Health-Emergency-Preparedness-and-Response-Authority-HERA-\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Health Emergency Response Agency (HERA)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> proposed for the European Union may offer an alternative model. In the fields of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/731070\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">volcanology<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">forest fire management<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> supranational organisations have been well established and effective for many years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The supra-national health action agencies will need to hold knowledge and data management competencies for pro-active monitoring of potential risks, anticipating as far as possible which biological agents have pandemic capacity while designing strategic and tactical response plans to contain threats in their initial moments. They will also need intelligence and logistic capacity, having plans, for instance, to respond to a \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2015\/02\/150217083753.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">jump<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to humans, of viruses such as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arc2020.eu\/poland-the-biosecurity-battle-with-african-swine-fever-on-farms\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">African Swine flu virus in Poland<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/news-perspective\/2021\/02\/russia-reports-first-human-h5n8-avian-flu-cases\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the H5N8 avian flu virus in Russia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or other health threats like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/unfao\/fao-podcast-tzh-59-worst-desert-locust-outbreak-in-decades?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social+media&amp;utm_campaign=fao\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">locust infestation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelocal.it\/20161013\/evacuation-plan-for-vesuvius-eruption-naples-campania-will-be-ready-by-october\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">volcanic eruption<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. These<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">supra-national health action agencies will need to hold reserves of critical medical devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/apr\/18\/patent-waiver-covid-vaccines-uk-variants?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">vaccines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other equipment, that enable instantaneous action against a pandemic, until industrial supply chains are adapted to the new reality. Time will be critical for prompt action and efficient crisis management.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the twentieth century, the world developed supranational bodies where it clearly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/commentaries\/detail\/op-ed---covid-19-shows-why-united-action-is-needed-for-more-robust-international-health-architecture\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">benefited the common good<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of nations; the ultimate example of this is the United Nations. In an increasingly globalized and small world where everything tends to occur almost simultaneously, only international solutions based on co-operation will be able to respond to major issues since what affects one country can quickly become a global threat. Therefore, it is in the direct interest of all nations to participate in the elimination or mitigation of a risk in any country in the world. Only through this highest commitment to international cooperation will it be possible to find appropriate solutions, to supply equipment volumes at an adequate time and acceptable prices, and with universal standards and applicability, and to exchange of experiences to debug national procedures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/commentaries\/detail\/op-ed---covid-19-shows-why-united-action-is-needed-for-more-robust-international-health-architecture\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">leaders&#8217; call for a new global treaty on pandemic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> responses is not yet realistically matched by recognition of the need to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">prevent<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pandemics. The destruction of ecosystems by humans\u2014plundering rainforests and the oceans, throwing together humans and animal species in ways previously limited, and setting the conditions through which microorganisms can jump species. The conditions for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2019\/sep\/18\/a-deadly-virus-could-kill-80-million-people-in-hours-experts-warn\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">growth of pandemics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are set in humankind\u2019s insatiable <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/jun\/17\/pandemics-destruction-nature-un-who-legislation-trade-green-recovery\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">lust for land<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, international travel, accumulation of consumer goods, combined with the capacity for exploitation and conflict. The lethality of a pandemic is manifest in grotesque inequalities in the burden of ageing, obesity, addiction, and non-communicable disease within and between countries, ethnic groups, genders, and minorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Politicians need to commit resources to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">prevent pandemics<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, to build new international meso-structures\u2014supra-national health action agencies\u2014and to build an expanded and enhanced role for the WHO. If they can demonstrate willingness to do this, to pool sovereignty and recoil from the narrow minded nationalism that has cost <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-56783878\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">three million lives so far<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in this pandemic, the world will be a safer place and humanity will have stepped back from the cliff edge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Henrique Lopes<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Catholic University of Lisbon.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><i>John Middleton<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, President, Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>: none declared.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supra-national health action agencies are needed in every WHO region or continent, to predict, prevent and respond to pandemics Twenty five of the world\u2019s leaders recently called for a new [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2021\/04\/26\/what-should-we-ask-of-a-new-global-treaty-for-pandemic-preparedness\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":50062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What should we ask of a new global treaty for pandemic preparedness? 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