Helicopters fly over President Office with Taiwan National flag during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021.
The three years of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a terrible loss of life and exacerbated health inequalities. The global economy slumped and, worldwide, people’s lives were affected. This experience demonstrated that the present global health governance framework is not effective in responding to threats to global health.
WHO and many countries began reviewing response strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weaknesses in the International Health Regulations as concerns managing this crisis were revealed. As a result, changes are afoot. Proposed revisions include enhanced surveillance, reporting, and information sharing; improved response readiness; and revised criteria for declaring PHEICs.
As Taiwan is not a WHO member state, we cannot directly influence revisions to the International Health Regulations or the drafting of the pandemic agreement. Nevertheless, we remain greatly concerned about the content of and developments regarding these central documents. We are eager to contribute our insights into pandemic management and learn from international best practices. Taiwan was the nation that initially identified the epidemic risk and promptly executed adaptive measures.