Under A Market Logic, Even Pathogens Have Proud Owners
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Under A Market Logic, Even Pathogens Have Proud Owners

Live Law  

Exactly after four years of the Covid-19 hit the globe, WHO is ready with a draft negotiating text of the Pandemic Agreement with 'prevention, preparedness and response' as its purpose. The draft defines 'pathogen with pandemic potential' as “any pathogen that has been identified to infect a human and that is: novel or known, potentially highly transmissible and /or highly virulent with the potential to cause a public health emergency of international concerns”. Article 12 para 3 speaks about a Party who has access to a pathogen with pandemic potential and sharing of the pathogen genetic sequence with the WHO. Then article 12 para 12 states the draft treaty is consistent with the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity and PABS is applicable access and benefit-sharing system for biological materials and genetic sequence with pandemic potential. The theoretical confusion concerns as to whether the draft sees pathogen as a perilous entity capable of producing havoc or a useful biological resource for the country of origin or access.

International Pandemic Access Draft Biological Product Pathogens Ihl Pandemic Potential Pabs Pathogen Market Logic  developed  proud  draft  access  product  pathogens  international  pabs  market  logic  biological  public  pathogen  owners  pandemic

History of this topic

World Health Assembly hopes to reinforce pandemic preparedness after bold treaty project stalls
6 months, 3 weeks ago

World Health Assembly hopes to reinforce pandemic preparedness after bold treaty project stalls

Associated Press  

GENEVA — Member countries kicked off the World Health Organization’s annual assembly on Monday with hopes of improving global readiness for deadly outbreaks like COVID-19, after an ambitious “pandemic treaty” ran aground last week. A bold project to adopt a pandemic “treaty” at this week’s World Health Assembly was shelved on Friday as 2 1/2 years of work ran into …

How the World Health Organization could fight future pandemics
6 months, 4 weeks ago

How the World Health Organization could fight future pandemics

The Hindu  

Health officials from the 194 member states of the World Health Organization hope next week to complete more than two years of negotiations on new rules for responding to pandemics when they gather in Geneva. Negotiations go to the wire on Friday for two complementary deals set to be formalised at the May 27-June 1 meeting: an update to existing …

Amid global polarisation, the pandemic agreement encourages cooperation
7 months ago

Amid global polarisation, the pandemic agreement encourages cooperation

Al Jazeera  

The treaty under negotiation is a life-saving tool that will ensure no one is left behind when the next pandemic strikes. This spurred a decision, by the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization, to undertake two landmark, parallel efforts: to start negotiating a first-ever pandemic agreement to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics, while at the same …

Countries struggle to draft ‘pandemic treaty’ to avoid mistakes made during COVID
7 months, 1 week ago

Countries struggle to draft ‘pandemic treaty’ to avoid mistakes made during COVID

Associated Press  

GENEVA — After the coronavirus pandemic triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions, leaders at the World Health Organization and worldwide vowed to do better in the future. Britain’s department of health said it would only agree to an accord if it was “firmly in the U.K. national interest and respects national sovereignty.” And many developing countries say it’s …

Biden administration partners with 50 countries to stifle future pandemics
8 months, 1 week ago

Biden administration partners with 50 countries to stifle future pandemics

LA Times  

President Biden’s administration is launching a program that will help 50 countries, most of them in Africa and Asia, identify and respond to infectious diseases. President Biden’s administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak that suddenly halted normal life around the globe in 2020. The Global …

Removing AMR from the WHO’s ‘pandemic treaty’ will leave humans vulnerable to future pandemics
1 year, 6 months ago

Removing AMR from the WHO’s ‘pandemic treaty’ will leave humans vulnerable to future pandemics

The Hindu  

In late May, the latest version of the draft Pandemic Instrument, also referred to as the “pandemic treaty,” was shared with Member States at the World Health Assembly. Explained | The challenge of antimicrobial resistance Just three years after the onset of a global pandemic, it is understandable why Member States negotiating the Pandemic Instrument have focused on preventing pandemics …

WHO, Believes Disease X Could Create A Pandemic Like Situation, All You Need To Know
1 year, 6 months ago

WHO, Believes Disease X Could Create A Pandemic Like Situation, All You Need To Know

News 18  

As the world gradually returns to a sense of normalcy following the unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the scientific and public health communities remain steadfast in their preparations for future outbreaks and pandemics. As the global community reflects on the challenges and lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, the pursuit of knowledge and preventive measures against future outbreaks …

Draft WHO pandemic deal pushes for equity to avoid COVID ’failure’ repeat
1 year, 10 months ago

Draft WHO pandemic deal pushes for equity to avoid COVID ’failure’ repeat

Live Mint  

Governments may have to reserve drugs and vaccines for the World Health Organization to distribute in poorer countries to avoid a repeat of the "catastrophic failure" during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an early draft of a global pandemic agreement. The draft also retains earlier provisions that could see pharmaceutical companies made to release details of any public contracts for …

Lessons From COVID: What The World Needs to Learn to Tackle Future Pandemics
1 year, 11 months ago

Lessons From COVID: What The World Needs to Learn to Tackle Future Pandemics

The Quint  

The costly lesson from COVID: why elimination should be the default global strategy for future pandemics Getty Images Imagine it is 2030. An upgraded pandemic response to eliminate at source The process by which the WHO currently decides whether to declare a public health emergency of international concern has drawn criticism for being too slow. Elimination makes sense for other …

The outline of an essential global pandemic treaty
2 years, 3 months ago

The outline of an essential global pandemic treaty

The Hindu  

COVID-19 would count as being among some of the most severe pandemics the world has seen in the last 100 years. India produces nearly 60% of the world’s vaccines and is said to account for 60%-80% of the United Nations’ annual vaccine procurement — “vaccine diplomacy” or “vaccine maitri” with a commitment against health inequity. As of 2021, India shipped …

Next pandemic may be worse, says scientist behind UK's Covid-19 vaccine
3 years ago

Next pandemic may be worse, says scientist behind UK's Covid-19 vaccine

India Today  

One of the scientists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is warning that the next pandemic may be more contagious and more lethal unless more money is devoted to research and preparations to fight emerging viral threats. In excerpts released before a speech Monday, Professor Sarah Gilbert says the scientific advances made in fighting deadly viruses “must not be lost” because …

‘False sense of security’ around COVID vaccines: WHO
3 years, 1 month ago

‘False sense of security’ around COVID vaccines: WHO

Al Jazeera  

WHO chief says many vaccinated people wrongly think they no longer need to take other precautions against COVID. The chief of the World Health Organization has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over and that some people were falling into a “false sense of security” after being vaccinated against the virus. In a news briefing in Geneva on …

In Talks With Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna to Source, Manufacture Vaccines in India: Centre
3 years, 6 months ago

In Talks With Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna to Source, Manufacture Vaccines in India: Centre

News 18  

Discussions are underway with major pharma companies about sourcing and possibly manufacturing their COVID-19 jabs locally while India is looking forward to WHO’s nod for Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed vaccine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday. Addressing the World Health Organisation’s South-East Asia Regional Health Partners’ Forum on COVID-19 he also said the government has worked with key …

WHO, at heart of world’s sluggish Covid response, could face shake-up
3 years, 6 months ago

WHO, at heart of world’s sluggish Covid response, could face shake-up

Live Mint  

The World Health Organization, at the heart of the world's sluggish handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, faces a potential shake-up to prevent future outbreaks as a top official warned that "the pathogens have the upper hand". Health ministers from WHO's 194 member states will also meet from Nov. 29 to decide whether to launch negotiations on an international treaty aimed …

Entire globe is a unit: Centre told SC on vaccine exports
3 years, 7 months ago

Entire globe is a unit: Centre told SC on vaccine exports

The Hindu  

The “entire globe is a unit” during a pandemic. Simultaneous vaccination without priority classification would have led to “commotion”, the Centre told the Supreme Court. “To illustrate, having received one crore vaccine doses for a particular State or city, the vaccine drive would need sufficient number of medical staff who can administer the vaccines and infrastructure like hospitals, primary health …

World could have prevented COVID-19 catastrophe: Expert panel
3 years, 7 months ago

World could have prevented COVID-19 catastrophe: Expert panel

Al Jazeera  

Report by Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response says ‘toxic cocktail’ of dithering and poor coordination means warning signs went unheeded. An independent panel has concluded that the catastrophic scale of the coronavirus pandemic could have been prevented but a “toxic cocktail” of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded. Early responses to the outbreak detected …

Role Of 'Intellectual Property' While Tackling The 'International Pandemic'
3 years, 8 months ago

Role Of 'Intellectual Property' While Tackling The 'International Pandemic'

Live Law  

The debaters of intellectual property exclusivity versus the public interest at large have been always at loggerheads. Apart from the commercial issues, the "vaccine nationalism" and especially stark disparity in vaccination between poor and rich nations ultimately impacts everyone as it hampers progress on tackling the pandemic. The said proposal by India and South Africa is again in news because …

How to think about vaccines and patents in a pandemic
3 years, 8 months ago

How to think about vaccines and patents in a pandemic

The Economist  

W ITH ANY luck, the world will be awash in covid-19 vaccines by the end of the year. Deaths, by contrast, are increasingly concentrated in poorer ones, like India, where only about nine in every 100 people have been jabbed, compared with 64 in America. India and South Africa, for instance, propose that members of the World Trade Organisation waive …

Covid-19: World leaders unite to call for pandemic treaty, saying: ‘No one is safe until we are all safe’
3 years, 8 months ago

Covid-19: World leaders unite to call for pandemic treaty, saying: ‘No one is safe until we are all safe’

CNN  

CNN — Global leaders have called for a new treaty to help the world prepare for future pandemics, in a warning against rising vaccine nationalism. More than 20 national leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Boris Johnson and Germany’s Angela Merkel, wrote a piece published in several media outlets on Tuesday warning that it is a question of “not if, …

World leaders call for international pandemic treaty but offer few details
3 years, 8 months ago

World leaders call for international pandemic treaty but offer few details

LA Times  

More than 20 heads of government and global agencies called Tuesday for an international treaty on pandemic preparedness to protect future generations after the experience of the COVID-19 crisis. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, and leaders including Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda …

Share COVID-19 vaccines, don't stockpile them: UN Secretary-General tells developed counties
3 years, 8 months ago

Share COVID-19 vaccines, don't stockpile them: UN Secretary-General tells developed counties

Firstpost  

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized developed countries for creating a “stockpile” of Covid-19 vaccines, and called on them to share with the rest of the world to help end the pandemic. “I’m very concerned with this very unfair distribution of vaccines in the world,” Guterres said in an interview broadcast Sunday by the Canadian channel CBC. “It’s in the interest …

'Premature, unrealistic' to think Covid pandemic will be stopped by end of 2021: WHO
3 years, 9 months ago

'Premature, unrealistic' to think Covid pandemic will be stopped by end of 2021: WHO

India Today  

A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was "premature" and "unrealistic" to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death. WHO's director-general, meanwhile, said it was "regrettable" that younger and healthier adults in some rich countries are …

Opinion: To stop the global pandemic, rich countries need to stop hoarding vaccines
3 years, 10 months ago

Opinion: To stop the global pandemic, rich countries need to stop hoarding vaccines

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Stephen Cockburn is head of economic and social justice at Amnesty International. In response, European officials have introduced temporary export restrictions on vaccines produced in its territories, giving member states the option of limiting exports outside the EU to countries like the UK, the United States and even South Africa. This is according to analysis in December 2020 …

The pandemic could push 49 million Africans into extreme poverty. Here’s how other countries can help (opinion)
4 years, 1 month ago

The pandemic could push 49 million Africans into extreme poverty. Here’s how other countries can help (opinion)

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Unfortunately, despite lower case numbers and, in many cases, tighter control measures than other countries on European or UK safe fly lists, African countries have paid the price of disconnection from the rest of the world, with the majority of its population being unfairly treated …

Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy in India’s outreach plan
4 years, 3 months ago

Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy in India’s outreach plan

Hindustan Times  

The Union government is working on at least five distinct ways, ranging from free vaccines to guaranteed supply, in which it can help its immediate neighbours as well as countries in West Asia, Africa and even Latin America, officials familiar with the plan said on condition of anonymity. Though the arrangement will be largely for these vaccines, it might also …

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