774 - Why We Desperately Need—And Still Don't Have—A Global Pandemic Treaty
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2024
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, world health officials agreed that many more lives could have been saved had there been better global coordination. In 2021, countries came together to draft a pandemic treaty committing to better future responses and pledging to sign it within two years. But deadlines have come and gone, the draft revised many times over. In a race to secure an agreement before the next pandemic, countries must reckon with historic inequities, vaccine access, data sharing, and more.
Guests:
Alexandra Phelan is an expert in global health law and an associate professor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Host:
Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Show links and related content:
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Ignore the disinformation—the US is safer with a global pandemic treaty—The Hill (Opinion)
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The world needs the new pandemic treaty—STAT (Opinion)
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Global pandemic treaty to be concluded by 2025, WHO says—Reuters
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh. |
| 0:21.6 | Jh.edu. |
| 0:23.6 | That's public health question at jh. |
| 0:25.6 | u. |
| 0:26.6 | For future podcast episodes. |
| 0:29.6 | This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:31.6 | Since 2021, countries have been drafting a pandemic treaty aimed at ensuring there's a better global |
| 0:38.3 | response to the next pandemic. Dr. Alexandra Phelan, an expert in global health law, joins |
| 0:44.4 | the podcast to talk about some particulars of the treaty, why the stakes are so high to draft |
| 0:49.8 | and agree on a treaty like this in the first place, and why a major deadline to sign it was missed. |
| 0:56.1 | Let's listen. |
| 0:57.9 | Alexandra Feeleyn, thank you so much for being on public health on call. |
| 1:01.5 | Today we're going to talk about the pandemic treaty. |
| 1:04.3 | So could you give us a little bit of background on the pandemic treaty? |
| 1:07.4 | Thanks so much for having me. |
| 1:09.5 | So at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2021, |
| 1:14.8 | countries recognised that the international system had really failed to respond to the crisis. |
| 1:21.6 | That included, you know, what the WHO, the World Health Organisation had been tasked with doing, |
| 1:26.8 | that included countries' own reactions. |
| 1:29.5 | And really, the big issue was vaccine in equity and what we saw with the distribution of vaccines |
... |
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