Do we need a pandemic treaty?

Covid-19 has dominated our lives for almost two years. Vaccines have been developed in record time, yet nearly half the world’s population has not received a single dose. What has gone wrong?

Imogen Foulkes is joined in this podcast episode by global health and policy experts.

“How do you solve this in the longer term? You don’t want to be in this situation when this happens again. This could happen next month, if the wrong variant comes out,” says Bruce Aylward, senior advisor to the director-general at the World Health Organization (WHO).

The new Omicron Covid variant now threatens to undo earlier progress. Do we need a global pandemic treaty?

“We have not managed to ensure equitable access. We have left decisions to narrow national interests and to commercial decision-making,” says Michelle Childs, head of policy and advocacy at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). “We need to be optimistic. We must be optimistic. It’s in everyone’s interest to get out of this pandemic,” says Federica Zamatto, a medical coordinator at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

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