Moments of existential crisis can turn into opportunities for bold reform. World War II led to the creation of transformative institutions—the United Nations in 1945 and the World Health Organization in 1948. The birth of the WHO came the same year that the U.N. adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
As the U.N.’s first specialized agency, the WHO has a constitutional mandate to direct and coordinate international health, which includes advancing work to eradicate epidemic disease. No state acting alone can prevent the worldwide spread of infectious diseases. Only robust international institutions can set global norms, promote cooperation and share scientific information needed to respond to disease outbreaks. As a result, the WHO’s role remains indispensable.
It has become painfully obvious that there is a major disconnect between what the world expects of the WHO and its capacities and powers. Consider its funding: The WHO’s next Biennium Budget is $6.12 billion, less than those of some large U.S. teaching hospitals and one fifth of the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With crisis comes opportunity, and the new pandemic treaty has the potential to be transformative. It should introduce momentous reforms even beyond giving the WHO power to conduct independent investigations. These provisions should include adopting a “One Health” strategy that recognizes the interconnection among people, animals, plants and their shared environments. The most likely origin of SARS-CoV-2 is a natural zoonotic spillover, the source of more than 60 percent of emerging diseases.
Perhaps most important, the COVID pandemic revealed massive divides based on race, ethnicity, sex, disability and socioeconomic status at both international and national levels. High-income countries dominated global markets in diagnostics, protective equipment, therapeutics and, especially, vaccines. The WHO and its partners designed the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator to hasten the development and production of, and equitable access to, COVID resources. Yet COVAX has badly underperformed.
“Pushed” why the past tense? CovidIsNotOver
because....its over?
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