Public Health Experts Unsure if RFK Jr’s Focus on Big Food Will Yield Results 18/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy appearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May. While many public health experts have criticised United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr for undermining vaccines, several think his focus on chronic illness and big food has potential – although they are sceptical of whether he will employ proven methods to improve citizens’ health. Obesity, and associated problems of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension, have steadily increased over the past two decades in the US (with a brief dip in 2023), and the consumption of ultra-processed food (UPF) is a major driver of this. “Nearly 70% of an American child’s calories today come from ultra-processed foods (67%), and over two-thirds of all calories consumed by American children are ultra-processed grains, sugars, and fats,” according to the recent Make America Health Again (MAHA) report. Last week, Kennedy met lawmakers from Arkansas, Idaho and Utah when they announced that they would no longer allow low-income families who benefit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to use the food aid buy junk food and sugary drinks. This is part of a drive by the US Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, and six states have adopted waivers qualifying what SNAP beneficiaries can buy. One-in-five US children were beneficiaries of SNAP in 2023, according to the MAHA report. Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that it aims to launch “a series of bold, edgy national campaigns” to make people aware of the links between ultra-processed food and diabetes and “challenge individuals to adopt disciplined, lifelong habits – centered on eating real food, physical fitness, and spiritual growth.” Correct analysis – but no proven interventions Global food policy expert Professor Barry Popkin told Health Policy Watch that the MAHA report “addressed ultra-processed food quite correctly and appropriately”. “As for actions and next steps, they will come out in a month or two with a policy document, which will show us what Acts and laws they are addressing,” said Popkin, distinguished professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Dr Tom Frieden, CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agrees that the MAHA report “correctly identifies serious health threats from unhealthy foods, environmental toxins, and insufficient physical activity among children”. Frieden also notes that the report’s “emphasis on reducing industry influence is important recognition of inappropriate commercial influence in health policy”. But Frieden says that it “overlooks proven cost-effective interventions that reduce chronic diseases, including front-of-package warning labels, restrictions on marketing unhealthy products to children, taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages and tobacco, and comprehensive tobacco control measures. Since August 2021, Argentinian ultra-processed food companies have had to add warning labels to their products that are high in salt, sugar and other harmful ingredients. “Countries implementing these policies have healthier kids, yet the report dismisses such regulatory approaches,” adds Frieden, whose organisation has extensive global experience in saving lives by addressing high blood pressure and unhealthy food. “The report makes a compelling case for government intervention to address inappropriate corporate influences, then paradoxically rejects the regulatory solutions its own data supports.” Frieden also criticises the report for failing to address tobacco use, the US’s leading preventable cause of death; advocating for voluntary industry agreements that have “repeatedly failed”, and not mentioning how primary healthcare can detect and manage chronic diseases. MAHA: An opportunity and risk Popkin and UNC colleague Dr Lindsey Smith Tallie describe the MAHA movement as “arguably the largest, most energised movement to date to address the USA’s twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes” in a recent article in The Lancet. The growing focus on nutrition and NCDs is “long overdue” as poor diet has been a leading cause of death and disability in the US “for decades”, with 20% of children and 42% of adults living with obesity, they note. “Over half of Americans consume sugary drinks on a daily basis, whereas approximately two-thirds of daily calories come from ultra-processed foods” but there has been “virtually no progression in policy to address poor diets”, they add. But they acknowledge that while MAHA has “tremendous potential to transform the food system”, it also “carries serious risks unless policies are based on science”. They point to Kennedy’s “record of denying or contradicting scientific evidence” and note that he may not be free of conflict-of-interests (he has close links with Big Wellness groups that stand to benefit from his policies). They also warn that the Trump administration’s slashing of National Institute of Health funding will cripple biomedical research. New York City letter New York City, a global leader in anti-tobacco and other campaigns to address NCDs, has also weighed in on the MAHA report via a six-page letter to the MAHA Commissioner in May. It urged the Food and Drug Administration to finalise sodium reduction targets and establish new added sugar reduction targets. Michelle Morse, NYC’s Acting Health Commissioner, also offered the city’s expertise in promoting healthy food. The city has paired its 1.5 million annual SNAP beneficiaries with farmers’ markets to offer incentives to both consumers and food producers. However, Morse warned that the Trump administration’s changes to SNAP “will make it harder for families to buy the foods they need to stay healthy. It is also critical thatthe federal government doesn’t place undue administrative burdens that may lessen the efficiency orincrease the cost of this effective and economy boosting program.” “We encourage the administration to support evidence-backed policies, to lean on the expertise that exists within state and local health departments, and to consider the potential ramifications that budget cuts may have on the goal of reducing chronic disease,” the letter concludes. Politicization of food policy? Popkin and Smith question whether Kennedy and the Trump administration will be able to overcome massive opposition from the food industry to regulate the food environment. They also stress that “transparent, rigorous, and conflict-free scientific processes are used, even if the outcomes do not align with the preferred policy positions”. Otherwise, there is the risk of a greater politicization of food and nutrition policy to the detriment of everyone,” they warn. Kevin Hall, one of the NIH’s most senior scientists studying nutrition, metabolism and neuroscience, announced his “early retirement” in April, saying that his research had been censored “because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction”. His attempts to discuss his concerns with NIH leaders were ignored. Meanwhile, Frieden warns: “Real progress demands systematic implementation of proven interventions, including through policies, regulations, and comprehensive programs like the CDC programs that Secretary Kennedy just dismantled.” Image Credits: Thomas Kelley/ Unsplash, C-Span, Global Health Policy Incubator . Mistrust, Trump and Multilateralism: Key Ingredients of the Pandemic Agreement ‘Recipe’ 17/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Panel discussion members Eloise Todd (moderator), Ambassador Amprou, Ambassador Ambassador Umej Bhatia, Colombia’s Juliana Tenorio Quintero and the South Centre’s Viviana Muñoz-Tellez. Mistrust undermined the pandemic agreement talks – but, ironically, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) galvanised member states to reach agreement, according to Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the talks. “There was a lack of trust. That means that when member states wanted to make a proposal, sometimes it created suspicion – not because of the content but because of the delegation that put the proposal on the table, and that was not always very easy to navigate,” Amprou told a meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. But after the US withdrew from the WHO on 20 January, “we could feel that member states wanted to preserve the WHO, to preserve multilateralism, and I think that it helped to have a sense of compromise at the end,” she said. The meeting, convened by the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre, the Pandemic Action Network (PAN) and the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), reflected both on the process of reaching on the agreement and on the road ahead. Ambassador Umej Bhatia of Singapore credited Amprou with bringing trust to the negotiations when she became co-chair in July 2024, replacing Roland Driece of the Netherlands. “Building trust requires folks to say: ‘Look, I’m going to come here and I’m going to put all the ego to the side and work on something important for humanity,” he said, crediting the women leaders in the talks for being particularly helpful. Bhatia also thanked “the president of a very big power” for pushing delegates over the line. The pandemic agreement is the “first major agreement” where the US is absent and that “spurred” member states to ensure that they championed and protected multilateralism, he added. While the agreement is symbolically important for multilateralism, it is also important because it is “a global acknowledgement of the importance of equity and inclusivity” – although that depends on getting PABS [the annex on a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system] done,” Bhatia stressed. Negotiations on how a PABS system will work still has to be negotiated, and this is expected to be concluded by next year’s World Health Assembly (WHA). Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros at the conclusion of the pandemic agreement talks. COVID broke trust Juliana Tenorio Quintero, Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia’s Mission in Geneva, ascribed the lack of trust between member states to what happened during COVID-19, when developing countries could not get timely access to medical countermeasures. She added that the pandemic agreement is “huge” – “like five agreements in one”. Talks were hard because there was a lack of expertise in crafting global health law treaties, member states were involved in the parallel process of negotiating the Intergovernmental Health Regulations (IHR), were under pressure from non-state actors – as well as the lack of trust and geopolitical context. “Right at the end of the two years, we discovered that informal negotiations are the key to unlock negotiations,” said Quintero. She also said that the personal commitment of delegates needs to continue to complete the next phase: “We became a family after many days and nights together – perhaps sometimes a dysfunctional family, as one colleague told me – but in any case, a family committed to deliver an instrument that served mankind.” Three hundred days until deadline WHO legal officer Steven Solomon said that the PABS annex had to be completed by 17 April 2026 if it was was to be passed by next year’s WHA. “If you’re counting days, that’s 300 days. If you’re counting weeks, that’s 43 weeks and three days,” said Solomon. An Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), which still needs to be set up, will manage the next phase of negotiations. The South Centre’s Viviana Muñoz-Tellez said the two next steps – negotiating PABS and implementation – would determine whether the agreement enables global collaboration. Muñoz-Tellez also called for “meaningful spaces for getting the inputs of all sorts of non-state actors” because we know that “industry will definitely be on top of PABS”, but we really need to get other parties to be involved. Amprou said that the preparatory work for the implementation should start as soon as possible, in parallel to negotiations on the annex, which she thought should be a short document. “I think that this negotiation should be much more technical than political. We know the political positions of different member states,” said Amprou. Bhatia said that the PABS talks involved both national and hard commercial interests, which made reaching agreement very difficult. He urged the PABS annex to emphasize “scientific collaboration”, describing it as under threat in a world where there’s a lot of anti-science sentiment. Quintero said that the agreement’s technology transfer “lacks ambition”, and also called for an implementation committee. Closing the discussion, Norwegian Ambassador Angell-Hansen, said that the nationalisation of production benefits, in particular vaccines, posed a threat to the legal certainty of the agreement and it is “very important to have a maximum water-tight legal text on this”. During the COVID pandemic, India prohibited the export of vaccines which were due to have been supplied to the global vaccine platform, Gavi, for global distribution. “It is important that the PABS system works in a simple, transparent and fair manner,” said Angell-Hanson, who is a GPMB board member. “Here, I would like to make a special reference to the position paper that industry from both north and south jointly developed, and I would encourage them to develop this paper further and in very concrete ways.” Image Credits: Thiru Balasubramaniam. US Judge Rules ‘Racist’ Cancellation of NIH Grants Null and Void 17/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan NIH building main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Trump administration’s cancellation of hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants “represents racial discrimination”, and were null and void, ruled United States District Court Judge William Young on Monday. This follows the cancellation of some 2,100 NIH research grants valued over than $12bn based on their links to “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology”, since Donald Trump assumed office in January. “I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.” A range of organisations including the American Public Health Association (APHA), American Civil Liberties Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Center for Science in the Public Interest and Ibis Reproductive Health launch a court challenge to to grant cancellations in April. Their central argument was that the NIH had not been motivated by science but “vague” new criteria in terminating the grants “The ideologically motivated directives to terminate grants alleged to constitute DEI, ‘gender ideology,’ or other forbidden topics were, in fact, arbitrary and capricious, and have now been ruled unlawful,” said Peter G Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the plaintiffs. Ibis described the ruling as “a major victory for public health”, describing the NIH’s directives that led to the cancellation of grants to be “based on sweeping, politically driven criteria.” Young has ordered the reinstatement of grants previously awarded to the organizations and 16 Democratic-led states that filed the lawsuit. The federal government intends to appeal the ruling. Image Credits: NIH. Economic Insecurity is Major Factor Driving Declining Fertility 16/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Economic insecurity is impacting on people’s family choices. Economic insecurity is a major factor driving declining fertility globally, according to the 2025 State of World Population report produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Financial worries – including job insecurity, housing and childcare costs – were key factors influencing over half of those interviewed to opt for fewer or no children, according to UNFPA. A quarter of respondents also cited health issues, including difficulty in conceiving, while 19% said fears about the future including climate change, were impacting their decision to have children. Some 14,000 people – women and men – across 14 countries representing almost 40% of the global population were interviewed for the report, which was released last week. The countries covered (from lowest to highest fertility rates) were: Korea, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, United States, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria. People from Korea (58%) and South Africa (53%) were most concerned about economic insecurity, followed by Thailand and Morocco. “Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. Lack of choice “The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” she added. UNFPA describes the fertility crisis as a “crisis in reproductive agency – in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family”. The human population is projected to peak within the century, and a quarter of people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked. However, one in three adults surveyed had also experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 20% of people reported being pressured to have children when they didn’t want to. The most marginalised people have experienced few of the advances in sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to the report. UNFPA data over the past five years shows that about 10% of women are unable to decide whether to use contraception, and roughly one quarter are unable to say no to sex. The report warns against simplistic or coercive responses to declining birth rates – such as baby bonuses or fertility targets – noting that these policies are largely ineffective and can violate human rights. It cites Romania’s 1966 ban on abortion and contraception as a warning. While the ban led to an immediate increase in total fertility rate from 1.87 births in 1966 to 3.59 in 1967, “by 1970, the fertility rate had fallen below three” and the consequences were “grave”. “By the time the policy ended in 1989, Romania had the highest maternal mortality rate in Europe, some 87% of which was attributable to unsafe abortion, as well as vast numbers of abandoned children,” according to the report. Instead, UNFPA urges governments to empower people to make reproductive decisions freely, including by investing in “affordable housing, decent work, parental leave, and the full range of reproductive health services and reliable information”. It advocates for “a tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures” to help people to have the families that they want. Image Credits: Jaya Banerji/MMV. Yellow Fever ‘Spillover’ from Animals in Amazon Basin is Fueling Cases in the Americas 16/06/2025 Sophia Samantaroy Yellow fever cases has surged this year in the Americas, mostly due to spillover events from animals. The region of the Americas has seen eight times the number of yellow fever cases this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The vaccine-preventable, viral, mosquito-borne disease has surged as cases “spillover” from animals, according to a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rapid risk assessment. Dense jungles in Colombia and Brazil have seen the most sylvatic – or “jungle” – yellow fever cases originating from an animal host. In these areas, unvaccinated humans can be infected from mosquitoes that are carrying the virus after biting infected monkeys and other primates. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have reported 221 confirmed human cases of yellow fever, and 89 deaths. Brazil accounts for nearly half of these cases and deaths. These countries typically see jungle cases each year, but the combination of increased spillover events and a persistent unvaccinated population has meant there is now a risk of urban outbreaks. Almost all cases and deaths reported this year and last were in unvaccinated people. PAHO has denoted the public health risk of yellow fever as high, even though a single dose of the vaccine is enough to provide life-long protection. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rates in the 12 countries in the region prone to yellow fever were quite high, ranging between 57-100% in young children, according to PAHO. But rates have dropped to below the recommended 95% coverage in 10 out of the 12 countries with circulating yellow fever, leaving a “substantial proportion” of the population unprotected, according to PAHO. Symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting occur three to four days after a mosquito bite. Roughly 15% of patients will develop a toxic, hemorrhagic phase. The mortality rate of this type of yellow fever is over 50%. Sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever is fueling transmission in the Amazon region. While recent vaccination campaigns have increased the number of people protected, fewer vaccine suppliers, cost, and the long process to make the vaccine means that there’s a limited global supply. “Current supplies [are] unable to cover demand in the Americas and in Africa,” said PAHO in a statement. This has led countries to consider splitting doses among multiple people, so that each jab is one-fifth the normal dose. This smaller dose provides immunity for up to 12 months. Historically notorious, but preventable disease Yellow fever has a long history in the Americas, with periodic epidemics crippling cities and rural areas alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. But following the introduction of an effective vaccine, most cases remained concentrated in the Amazon and mountainous regions in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. But this year, Colombia and Brazil have detected cases outside the typical Amazon region, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil and the department (state) of Tolima in Colombia. This increase in yellow fever is primarily due to the reactivation of the jungle transmission cycle in the Amazon region, according to a recent PAHO epidemiological alert. The expansion of cases beyond the typical regions points to an increase in human-forest interaction in forest edges. “These areas provide ideal conditions for canopy-dwelling mosquitoes to transmit the disease to human populations from non-human reservoirs,” said PAHO in its alert. While this year marks a concerning surge, it still hasn’t reached the levels of epidemics of the past decade, such as in 2016, said Dr Andrea Vicari, unit chief of infectious hazards at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccine hesitancy delays containment In Colombia, all yellow fever deaths have been of unvaccinated people. “All mortality has been among people not vaccinated,” said Dr Diana Pava, director of the Colombian National Institute of Health, told a PAHO briefing. The populations most affected are older adult men who work in the agricultural sector. Few, if any children catch yellow fever because the vaccine is “obligatory,” Pava noted. Children receive the jab with their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The same isn’t true for older generations, hence the concentration of cases in adults 65 and older. Yellow fever has now been detected in new regions in Brazil and Colombia, impacting unvaccinated older adults. Colombia’s rising cases highlight the difficulties in reaching older, rural, and isolated communities for vaccination. “In the rural areas, the beliefs may be different, or they don’t want the vaccine,” Pava said. Colombia’s health ministry is concentrating its outreach efforts on these areas, especially because any outbreak, even in a remote area, could lead to cases in more populated regions. For Brazil, which has seen over one hundred cases this past year, challenges include high vector density, and outright vaccine refusal out of fear, said Dr Daniel Ramos, arbovirus coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite this, Ramos praised Brazil’s high vaccination rate, which has protected Brazilians even with increased circulation of the disease in animals. Need to monitor animal hosts Changing ecological conditions have also made it easier for yellow fever to jump from non-human primates like monkeys, to people. Urbanization, “edge” habitats, and ecosystem fragmentation are all connected to a greater risk of yellow fever spread, noted Vicari. As a result, PAHO and health ministries have flagged the need to monitor yellow fever not only in humans, but in animals too. Tracking monkey deaths serves “an early warning to identify yellow fever circulation,” said PAHO in its alert. This could then alert officials to vaccinate people nearby. “While vaccination is certainly a key action, it must be integrated within a balanced response,” said Vicari, such as animal surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, vaccine stock management, and even contingency planning for potential urban outbreaks. Image Credits: PAHO, PAHO. Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
Mistrust, Trump and Multilateralism: Key Ingredients of the Pandemic Agreement ‘Recipe’ 17/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Panel discussion members Eloise Todd (moderator), Ambassador Amprou, Ambassador Ambassador Umej Bhatia, Colombia’s Juliana Tenorio Quintero and the South Centre’s Viviana Muñoz-Tellez. Mistrust undermined the pandemic agreement talks – but, ironically, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) galvanised member states to reach agreement, according to Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the talks. “There was a lack of trust. That means that when member states wanted to make a proposal, sometimes it created suspicion – not because of the content but because of the delegation that put the proposal on the table, and that was not always very easy to navigate,” Amprou told a meeting in Geneva on Tuesday. But after the US withdrew from the WHO on 20 January, “we could feel that member states wanted to preserve the WHO, to preserve multilateralism, and I think that it helped to have a sense of compromise at the end,” she said. The meeting, convened by the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre, the Pandemic Action Network (PAN) and the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), reflected both on the process of reaching on the agreement and on the road ahead. Ambassador Umej Bhatia of Singapore credited Amprou with bringing trust to the negotiations when she became co-chair in July 2024, replacing Roland Driece of the Netherlands. “Building trust requires folks to say: ‘Look, I’m going to come here and I’m going to put all the ego to the side and work on something important for humanity,” he said, crediting the women leaders in the talks for being particularly helpful. Bhatia also thanked “the president of a very big power” for pushing delegates over the line. The pandemic agreement is the “first major agreement” where the US is absent and that “spurred” member states to ensure that they championed and protected multilateralism, he added. While the agreement is symbolically important for multilateralism, it is also important because it is “a global acknowledgement of the importance of equity and inclusivity” – although that depends on getting PABS [the annex on a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system] done,” Bhatia stressed. Negotiations on how a PABS system will work still has to be negotiated, and this is expected to be concluded by next year’s World Health Assembly (WHA). Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou and WHO Director-General Dr Tedros at the conclusion of the pandemic agreement talks. COVID broke trust Juliana Tenorio Quintero, Minister Plenipotentiary of Colombia’s Mission in Geneva, ascribed the lack of trust between member states to what happened during COVID-19, when developing countries could not get timely access to medical countermeasures. She added that the pandemic agreement is “huge” – “like five agreements in one”. Talks were hard because there was a lack of expertise in crafting global health law treaties, member states were involved in the parallel process of negotiating the Intergovernmental Health Regulations (IHR), were under pressure from non-state actors – as well as the lack of trust and geopolitical context. “Right at the end of the two years, we discovered that informal negotiations are the key to unlock negotiations,” said Quintero. She also said that the personal commitment of delegates needs to continue to complete the next phase: “We became a family after many days and nights together – perhaps sometimes a dysfunctional family, as one colleague told me – but in any case, a family committed to deliver an instrument that served mankind.” Three hundred days until deadline WHO legal officer Steven Solomon said that the PABS annex had to be completed by 17 April 2026 if it was was to be passed by next year’s WHA. “If you’re counting days, that’s 300 days. If you’re counting weeks, that’s 43 weeks and three days,” said Solomon. An Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), which still needs to be set up, will manage the next phase of negotiations. The South Centre’s Viviana Muñoz-Tellez said the two next steps – negotiating PABS and implementation – would determine whether the agreement enables global collaboration. Muñoz-Tellez also called for “meaningful spaces for getting the inputs of all sorts of non-state actors” because we know that “industry will definitely be on top of PABS”, but we really need to get other parties to be involved. Amprou said that the preparatory work for the implementation should start as soon as possible, in parallel to negotiations on the annex, which she thought should be a short document. “I think that this negotiation should be much more technical than political. We know the political positions of different member states,” said Amprou. Bhatia said that the PABS talks involved both national and hard commercial interests, which made reaching agreement very difficult. He urged the PABS annex to emphasize “scientific collaboration”, describing it as under threat in a world where there’s a lot of anti-science sentiment. Quintero said that the agreement’s technology transfer “lacks ambition”, and also called for an implementation committee. Closing the discussion, Norwegian Ambassador Angell-Hansen, said that the nationalisation of production benefits, in particular vaccines, posed a threat to the legal certainty of the agreement and it is “very important to have a maximum water-tight legal text on this”. During the COVID pandemic, India prohibited the export of vaccines which were due to have been supplied to the global vaccine platform, Gavi, for global distribution. “It is important that the PABS system works in a simple, transparent and fair manner,” said Angell-Hanson, who is a GPMB board member. “Here, I would like to make a special reference to the position paper that industry from both north and south jointly developed, and I would encourage them to develop this paper further and in very concrete ways.” Image Credits: Thiru Balasubramaniam. US Judge Rules ‘Racist’ Cancellation of NIH Grants Null and Void 17/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan NIH building main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Trump administration’s cancellation of hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants “represents racial discrimination”, and were null and void, ruled United States District Court Judge William Young on Monday. This follows the cancellation of some 2,100 NIH research grants valued over than $12bn based on their links to “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology”, since Donald Trump assumed office in January. “I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.” A range of organisations including the American Public Health Association (APHA), American Civil Liberties Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Center for Science in the Public Interest and Ibis Reproductive Health launch a court challenge to to grant cancellations in April. Their central argument was that the NIH had not been motivated by science but “vague” new criteria in terminating the grants “The ideologically motivated directives to terminate grants alleged to constitute DEI, ‘gender ideology,’ or other forbidden topics were, in fact, arbitrary and capricious, and have now been ruled unlawful,” said Peter G Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the plaintiffs. Ibis described the ruling as “a major victory for public health”, describing the NIH’s directives that led to the cancellation of grants to be “based on sweeping, politically driven criteria.” Young has ordered the reinstatement of grants previously awarded to the organizations and 16 Democratic-led states that filed the lawsuit. The federal government intends to appeal the ruling. Image Credits: NIH. Economic Insecurity is Major Factor Driving Declining Fertility 16/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Economic insecurity is impacting on people’s family choices. Economic insecurity is a major factor driving declining fertility globally, according to the 2025 State of World Population report produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Financial worries – including job insecurity, housing and childcare costs – were key factors influencing over half of those interviewed to opt for fewer or no children, according to UNFPA. A quarter of respondents also cited health issues, including difficulty in conceiving, while 19% said fears about the future including climate change, were impacting their decision to have children. Some 14,000 people – women and men – across 14 countries representing almost 40% of the global population were interviewed for the report, which was released last week. The countries covered (from lowest to highest fertility rates) were: Korea, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, United States, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria. People from Korea (58%) and South Africa (53%) were most concerned about economic insecurity, followed by Thailand and Morocco. “Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. Lack of choice “The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” she added. UNFPA describes the fertility crisis as a “crisis in reproductive agency – in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family”. The human population is projected to peak within the century, and a quarter of people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked. However, one in three adults surveyed had also experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 20% of people reported being pressured to have children when they didn’t want to. The most marginalised people have experienced few of the advances in sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to the report. UNFPA data over the past five years shows that about 10% of women are unable to decide whether to use contraception, and roughly one quarter are unable to say no to sex. The report warns against simplistic or coercive responses to declining birth rates – such as baby bonuses or fertility targets – noting that these policies are largely ineffective and can violate human rights. It cites Romania’s 1966 ban on abortion and contraception as a warning. While the ban led to an immediate increase in total fertility rate from 1.87 births in 1966 to 3.59 in 1967, “by 1970, the fertility rate had fallen below three” and the consequences were “grave”. “By the time the policy ended in 1989, Romania had the highest maternal mortality rate in Europe, some 87% of which was attributable to unsafe abortion, as well as vast numbers of abandoned children,” according to the report. Instead, UNFPA urges governments to empower people to make reproductive decisions freely, including by investing in “affordable housing, decent work, parental leave, and the full range of reproductive health services and reliable information”. It advocates for “a tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures” to help people to have the families that they want. Image Credits: Jaya Banerji/MMV. Yellow Fever ‘Spillover’ from Animals in Amazon Basin is Fueling Cases in the Americas 16/06/2025 Sophia Samantaroy Yellow fever cases has surged this year in the Americas, mostly due to spillover events from animals. The region of the Americas has seen eight times the number of yellow fever cases this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The vaccine-preventable, viral, mosquito-borne disease has surged as cases “spillover” from animals, according to a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rapid risk assessment. Dense jungles in Colombia and Brazil have seen the most sylvatic – or “jungle” – yellow fever cases originating from an animal host. In these areas, unvaccinated humans can be infected from mosquitoes that are carrying the virus after biting infected monkeys and other primates. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have reported 221 confirmed human cases of yellow fever, and 89 deaths. Brazil accounts for nearly half of these cases and deaths. These countries typically see jungle cases each year, but the combination of increased spillover events and a persistent unvaccinated population has meant there is now a risk of urban outbreaks. Almost all cases and deaths reported this year and last were in unvaccinated people. PAHO has denoted the public health risk of yellow fever as high, even though a single dose of the vaccine is enough to provide life-long protection. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rates in the 12 countries in the region prone to yellow fever were quite high, ranging between 57-100% in young children, according to PAHO. But rates have dropped to below the recommended 95% coverage in 10 out of the 12 countries with circulating yellow fever, leaving a “substantial proportion” of the population unprotected, according to PAHO. Symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting occur three to four days after a mosquito bite. Roughly 15% of patients will develop a toxic, hemorrhagic phase. The mortality rate of this type of yellow fever is over 50%. Sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever is fueling transmission in the Amazon region. While recent vaccination campaigns have increased the number of people protected, fewer vaccine suppliers, cost, and the long process to make the vaccine means that there’s a limited global supply. “Current supplies [are] unable to cover demand in the Americas and in Africa,” said PAHO in a statement. This has led countries to consider splitting doses among multiple people, so that each jab is one-fifth the normal dose. This smaller dose provides immunity for up to 12 months. Historically notorious, but preventable disease Yellow fever has a long history in the Americas, with periodic epidemics crippling cities and rural areas alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. But following the introduction of an effective vaccine, most cases remained concentrated in the Amazon and mountainous regions in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. But this year, Colombia and Brazil have detected cases outside the typical Amazon region, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil and the department (state) of Tolima in Colombia. This increase in yellow fever is primarily due to the reactivation of the jungle transmission cycle in the Amazon region, according to a recent PAHO epidemiological alert. The expansion of cases beyond the typical regions points to an increase in human-forest interaction in forest edges. “These areas provide ideal conditions for canopy-dwelling mosquitoes to transmit the disease to human populations from non-human reservoirs,” said PAHO in its alert. While this year marks a concerning surge, it still hasn’t reached the levels of epidemics of the past decade, such as in 2016, said Dr Andrea Vicari, unit chief of infectious hazards at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccine hesitancy delays containment In Colombia, all yellow fever deaths have been of unvaccinated people. “All mortality has been among people not vaccinated,” said Dr Diana Pava, director of the Colombian National Institute of Health, told a PAHO briefing. The populations most affected are older adult men who work in the agricultural sector. Few, if any children catch yellow fever because the vaccine is “obligatory,” Pava noted. Children receive the jab with their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The same isn’t true for older generations, hence the concentration of cases in adults 65 and older. Yellow fever has now been detected in new regions in Brazil and Colombia, impacting unvaccinated older adults. Colombia’s rising cases highlight the difficulties in reaching older, rural, and isolated communities for vaccination. “In the rural areas, the beliefs may be different, or they don’t want the vaccine,” Pava said. Colombia’s health ministry is concentrating its outreach efforts on these areas, especially because any outbreak, even in a remote area, could lead to cases in more populated regions. For Brazil, which has seen over one hundred cases this past year, challenges include high vector density, and outright vaccine refusal out of fear, said Dr Daniel Ramos, arbovirus coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite this, Ramos praised Brazil’s high vaccination rate, which has protected Brazilians even with increased circulation of the disease in animals. Need to monitor animal hosts Changing ecological conditions have also made it easier for yellow fever to jump from non-human primates like monkeys, to people. Urbanization, “edge” habitats, and ecosystem fragmentation are all connected to a greater risk of yellow fever spread, noted Vicari. As a result, PAHO and health ministries have flagged the need to monitor yellow fever not only in humans, but in animals too. Tracking monkey deaths serves “an early warning to identify yellow fever circulation,” said PAHO in its alert. This could then alert officials to vaccinate people nearby. “While vaccination is certainly a key action, it must be integrated within a balanced response,” said Vicari, such as animal surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, vaccine stock management, and even contingency planning for potential urban outbreaks. Image Credits: PAHO, PAHO. Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
US Judge Rules ‘Racist’ Cancellation of NIH Grants Null and Void 17/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan NIH building main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Trump administration’s cancellation of hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants “represents racial discrimination”, and were null and void, ruled United States District Court Judge William Young on Monday. This follows the cancellation of some 2,100 NIH research grants valued over than $12bn based on their links to “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “gender ideology”, since Donald Trump assumed office in January. “I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” said Young, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.” A range of organisations including the American Public Health Association (APHA), American Civil Liberties Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Center for Science in the Public Interest and Ibis Reproductive Health launch a court challenge to to grant cancellations in April. Their central argument was that the NIH had not been motivated by science but “vague” new criteria in terminating the grants “The ideologically motivated directives to terminate grants alleged to constitute DEI, ‘gender ideology,’ or other forbidden topics were, in fact, arbitrary and capricious, and have now been ruled unlawful,” said Peter G Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the plaintiffs. Ibis described the ruling as “a major victory for public health”, describing the NIH’s directives that led to the cancellation of grants to be “based on sweeping, politically driven criteria.” Young has ordered the reinstatement of grants previously awarded to the organizations and 16 Democratic-led states that filed the lawsuit. The federal government intends to appeal the ruling. Image Credits: NIH. Economic Insecurity is Major Factor Driving Declining Fertility 16/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Economic insecurity is impacting on people’s family choices. Economic insecurity is a major factor driving declining fertility globally, according to the 2025 State of World Population report produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Financial worries – including job insecurity, housing and childcare costs – were key factors influencing over half of those interviewed to opt for fewer or no children, according to UNFPA. A quarter of respondents also cited health issues, including difficulty in conceiving, while 19% said fears about the future including climate change, were impacting their decision to have children. Some 14,000 people – women and men – across 14 countries representing almost 40% of the global population were interviewed for the report, which was released last week. The countries covered (from lowest to highest fertility rates) were: Korea, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, United States, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria. People from Korea (58%) and South Africa (53%) were most concerned about economic insecurity, followed by Thailand and Morocco. “Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. Lack of choice “The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” she added. UNFPA describes the fertility crisis as a “crisis in reproductive agency – in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family”. The human population is projected to peak within the century, and a quarter of people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked. However, one in three adults surveyed had also experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 20% of people reported being pressured to have children when they didn’t want to. The most marginalised people have experienced few of the advances in sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to the report. UNFPA data over the past five years shows that about 10% of women are unable to decide whether to use contraception, and roughly one quarter are unable to say no to sex. The report warns against simplistic or coercive responses to declining birth rates – such as baby bonuses or fertility targets – noting that these policies are largely ineffective and can violate human rights. It cites Romania’s 1966 ban on abortion and contraception as a warning. While the ban led to an immediate increase in total fertility rate from 1.87 births in 1966 to 3.59 in 1967, “by 1970, the fertility rate had fallen below three” and the consequences were “grave”. “By the time the policy ended in 1989, Romania had the highest maternal mortality rate in Europe, some 87% of which was attributable to unsafe abortion, as well as vast numbers of abandoned children,” according to the report. Instead, UNFPA urges governments to empower people to make reproductive decisions freely, including by investing in “affordable housing, decent work, parental leave, and the full range of reproductive health services and reliable information”. It advocates for “a tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures” to help people to have the families that they want. Image Credits: Jaya Banerji/MMV. Yellow Fever ‘Spillover’ from Animals in Amazon Basin is Fueling Cases in the Americas 16/06/2025 Sophia Samantaroy Yellow fever cases has surged this year in the Americas, mostly due to spillover events from animals. The region of the Americas has seen eight times the number of yellow fever cases this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The vaccine-preventable, viral, mosquito-borne disease has surged as cases “spillover” from animals, according to a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rapid risk assessment. Dense jungles in Colombia and Brazil have seen the most sylvatic – or “jungle” – yellow fever cases originating from an animal host. In these areas, unvaccinated humans can be infected from mosquitoes that are carrying the virus after biting infected monkeys and other primates. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have reported 221 confirmed human cases of yellow fever, and 89 deaths. Brazil accounts for nearly half of these cases and deaths. These countries typically see jungle cases each year, but the combination of increased spillover events and a persistent unvaccinated population has meant there is now a risk of urban outbreaks. Almost all cases and deaths reported this year and last were in unvaccinated people. PAHO has denoted the public health risk of yellow fever as high, even though a single dose of the vaccine is enough to provide life-long protection. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rates in the 12 countries in the region prone to yellow fever were quite high, ranging between 57-100% in young children, according to PAHO. But rates have dropped to below the recommended 95% coverage in 10 out of the 12 countries with circulating yellow fever, leaving a “substantial proportion” of the population unprotected, according to PAHO. Symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting occur three to four days after a mosquito bite. Roughly 15% of patients will develop a toxic, hemorrhagic phase. The mortality rate of this type of yellow fever is over 50%. Sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever is fueling transmission in the Amazon region. While recent vaccination campaigns have increased the number of people protected, fewer vaccine suppliers, cost, and the long process to make the vaccine means that there’s a limited global supply. “Current supplies [are] unable to cover demand in the Americas and in Africa,” said PAHO in a statement. This has led countries to consider splitting doses among multiple people, so that each jab is one-fifth the normal dose. This smaller dose provides immunity for up to 12 months. Historically notorious, but preventable disease Yellow fever has a long history in the Americas, with periodic epidemics crippling cities and rural areas alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. But following the introduction of an effective vaccine, most cases remained concentrated in the Amazon and mountainous regions in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. But this year, Colombia and Brazil have detected cases outside the typical Amazon region, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil and the department (state) of Tolima in Colombia. This increase in yellow fever is primarily due to the reactivation of the jungle transmission cycle in the Amazon region, according to a recent PAHO epidemiological alert. The expansion of cases beyond the typical regions points to an increase in human-forest interaction in forest edges. “These areas provide ideal conditions for canopy-dwelling mosquitoes to transmit the disease to human populations from non-human reservoirs,” said PAHO in its alert. While this year marks a concerning surge, it still hasn’t reached the levels of epidemics of the past decade, such as in 2016, said Dr Andrea Vicari, unit chief of infectious hazards at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccine hesitancy delays containment In Colombia, all yellow fever deaths have been of unvaccinated people. “All mortality has been among people not vaccinated,” said Dr Diana Pava, director of the Colombian National Institute of Health, told a PAHO briefing. The populations most affected are older adult men who work in the agricultural sector. Few, if any children catch yellow fever because the vaccine is “obligatory,” Pava noted. Children receive the jab with their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The same isn’t true for older generations, hence the concentration of cases in adults 65 and older. Yellow fever has now been detected in new regions in Brazil and Colombia, impacting unvaccinated older adults. Colombia’s rising cases highlight the difficulties in reaching older, rural, and isolated communities for vaccination. “In the rural areas, the beliefs may be different, or they don’t want the vaccine,” Pava said. Colombia’s health ministry is concentrating its outreach efforts on these areas, especially because any outbreak, even in a remote area, could lead to cases in more populated regions. For Brazil, which has seen over one hundred cases this past year, challenges include high vector density, and outright vaccine refusal out of fear, said Dr Daniel Ramos, arbovirus coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite this, Ramos praised Brazil’s high vaccination rate, which has protected Brazilians even with increased circulation of the disease in animals. Need to monitor animal hosts Changing ecological conditions have also made it easier for yellow fever to jump from non-human primates like monkeys, to people. Urbanization, “edge” habitats, and ecosystem fragmentation are all connected to a greater risk of yellow fever spread, noted Vicari. As a result, PAHO and health ministries have flagged the need to monitor yellow fever not only in humans, but in animals too. Tracking monkey deaths serves “an early warning to identify yellow fever circulation,” said PAHO in its alert. This could then alert officials to vaccinate people nearby. “While vaccination is certainly a key action, it must be integrated within a balanced response,” said Vicari, such as animal surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, vaccine stock management, and even contingency planning for potential urban outbreaks. Image Credits: PAHO, PAHO. Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
Economic Insecurity is Major Factor Driving Declining Fertility 16/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan Economic insecurity is impacting on people’s family choices. Economic insecurity is a major factor driving declining fertility globally, according to the 2025 State of World Population report produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Financial worries – including job insecurity, housing and childcare costs – were key factors influencing over half of those interviewed to opt for fewer or no children, according to UNFPA. A quarter of respondents also cited health issues, including difficulty in conceiving, while 19% said fears about the future including climate change, were impacting their decision to have children. Some 14,000 people – women and men – across 14 countries representing almost 40% of the global population were interviewed for the report, which was released last week. The countries covered (from lowest to highest fertility rates) were: Korea, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, United States, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria. People from Korea (58%) and South Africa (53%) were most concerned about economic insecurity, followed by Thailand and Morocco. “Vast numbers of people are unable to create the families they want,” said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. Lack of choice “The issue is lack of choice, not desire, with major consequences for individuals and societies. That is the real fertility crisis, and the answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” she added. UNFPA describes the fertility crisis as a “crisis in reproductive agency – in the ability of individuals to make their own free, informed and unfettered choices about everything from having sex to using contraception to starting a family”. The human population is projected to peak within the century, and a quarter of people currently live in a country where the population size is estimated to have already peaked. However, one in three adults surveyed had also experienced an unintended pregnancy, and 20% of people reported being pressured to have children when they didn’t want to. The most marginalised people have experienced few of the advances in sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to the report. UNFPA data over the past five years shows that about 10% of women are unable to decide whether to use contraception, and roughly one quarter are unable to say no to sex. The report warns against simplistic or coercive responses to declining birth rates – such as baby bonuses or fertility targets – noting that these policies are largely ineffective and can violate human rights. It cites Romania’s 1966 ban on abortion and contraception as a warning. While the ban led to an immediate increase in total fertility rate from 1.87 births in 1966 to 3.59 in 1967, “by 1970, the fertility rate had fallen below three” and the consequences were “grave”. “By the time the policy ended in 1989, Romania had the highest maternal mortality rate in Europe, some 87% of which was attributable to unsafe abortion, as well as vast numbers of abandoned children,” according to the report. Instead, UNFPA urges governments to empower people to make reproductive decisions freely, including by investing in “affordable housing, decent work, parental leave, and the full range of reproductive health services and reliable information”. It advocates for “a tailored mix of economic, social, and political measures” to help people to have the families that they want. Image Credits: Jaya Banerji/MMV. Yellow Fever ‘Spillover’ from Animals in Amazon Basin is Fueling Cases in the Americas 16/06/2025 Sophia Samantaroy Yellow fever cases has surged this year in the Americas, mostly due to spillover events from animals. The region of the Americas has seen eight times the number of yellow fever cases this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The vaccine-preventable, viral, mosquito-borne disease has surged as cases “spillover” from animals, according to a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rapid risk assessment. Dense jungles in Colombia and Brazil have seen the most sylvatic – or “jungle” – yellow fever cases originating from an animal host. In these areas, unvaccinated humans can be infected from mosquitoes that are carrying the virus after biting infected monkeys and other primates. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have reported 221 confirmed human cases of yellow fever, and 89 deaths. Brazil accounts for nearly half of these cases and deaths. These countries typically see jungle cases each year, but the combination of increased spillover events and a persistent unvaccinated population has meant there is now a risk of urban outbreaks. Almost all cases and deaths reported this year and last were in unvaccinated people. PAHO has denoted the public health risk of yellow fever as high, even though a single dose of the vaccine is enough to provide life-long protection. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rates in the 12 countries in the region prone to yellow fever were quite high, ranging between 57-100% in young children, according to PAHO. But rates have dropped to below the recommended 95% coverage in 10 out of the 12 countries with circulating yellow fever, leaving a “substantial proportion” of the population unprotected, according to PAHO. Symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting occur three to four days after a mosquito bite. Roughly 15% of patients will develop a toxic, hemorrhagic phase. The mortality rate of this type of yellow fever is over 50%. Sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever is fueling transmission in the Amazon region. While recent vaccination campaigns have increased the number of people protected, fewer vaccine suppliers, cost, and the long process to make the vaccine means that there’s a limited global supply. “Current supplies [are] unable to cover demand in the Americas and in Africa,” said PAHO in a statement. This has led countries to consider splitting doses among multiple people, so that each jab is one-fifth the normal dose. This smaller dose provides immunity for up to 12 months. Historically notorious, but preventable disease Yellow fever has a long history in the Americas, with periodic epidemics crippling cities and rural areas alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. But following the introduction of an effective vaccine, most cases remained concentrated in the Amazon and mountainous regions in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. But this year, Colombia and Brazil have detected cases outside the typical Amazon region, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil and the department (state) of Tolima in Colombia. This increase in yellow fever is primarily due to the reactivation of the jungle transmission cycle in the Amazon region, according to a recent PAHO epidemiological alert. The expansion of cases beyond the typical regions points to an increase in human-forest interaction in forest edges. “These areas provide ideal conditions for canopy-dwelling mosquitoes to transmit the disease to human populations from non-human reservoirs,” said PAHO in its alert. While this year marks a concerning surge, it still hasn’t reached the levels of epidemics of the past decade, such as in 2016, said Dr Andrea Vicari, unit chief of infectious hazards at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccine hesitancy delays containment In Colombia, all yellow fever deaths have been of unvaccinated people. “All mortality has been among people not vaccinated,” said Dr Diana Pava, director of the Colombian National Institute of Health, told a PAHO briefing. The populations most affected are older adult men who work in the agricultural sector. Few, if any children catch yellow fever because the vaccine is “obligatory,” Pava noted. Children receive the jab with their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The same isn’t true for older generations, hence the concentration of cases in adults 65 and older. Yellow fever has now been detected in new regions in Brazil and Colombia, impacting unvaccinated older adults. Colombia’s rising cases highlight the difficulties in reaching older, rural, and isolated communities for vaccination. “In the rural areas, the beliefs may be different, or they don’t want the vaccine,” Pava said. Colombia’s health ministry is concentrating its outreach efforts on these areas, especially because any outbreak, even in a remote area, could lead to cases in more populated regions. For Brazil, which has seen over one hundred cases this past year, challenges include high vector density, and outright vaccine refusal out of fear, said Dr Daniel Ramos, arbovirus coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite this, Ramos praised Brazil’s high vaccination rate, which has protected Brazilians even with increased circulation of the disease in animals. Need to monitor animal hosts Changing ecological conditions have also made it easier for yellow fever to jump from non-human primates like monkeys, to people. Urbanization, “edge” habitats, and ecosystem fragmentation are all connected to a greater risk of yellow fever spread, noted Vicari. As a result, PAHO and health ministries have flagged the need to monitor yellow fever not only in humans, but in animals too. Tracking monkey deaths serves “an early warning to identify yellow fever circulation,” said PAHO in its alert. This could then alert officials to vaccinate people nearby. “While vaccination is certainly a key action, it must be integrated within a balanced response,” said Vicari, such as animal surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, vaccine stock management, and even contingency planning for potential urban outbreaks. Image Credits: PAHO, PAHO. Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
Yellow Fever ‘Spillover’ from Animals in Amazon Basin is Fueling Cases in the Americas 16/06/2025 Sophia Samantaroy Yellow fever cases has surged this year in the Americas, mostly due to spillover events from animals. The region of the Americas has seen eight times the number of yellow fever cases this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The vaccine-preventable, viral, mosquito-borne disease has surged as cases “spillover” from animals, according to a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) rapid risk assessment. Dense jungles in Colombia and Brazil have seen the most sylvatic – or “jungle” – yellow fever cases originating from an animal host. In these areas, unvaccinated humans can be infected from mosquitoes that are carrying the virus after biting infected monkeys and other primates. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have reported 221 confirmed human cases of yellow fever, and 89 deaths. Brazil accounts for nearly half of these cases and deaths. These countries typically see jungle cases each year, but the combination of increased spillover events and a persistent unvaccinated population has meant there is now a risk of urban outbreaks. Almost all cases and deaths reported this year and last were in unvaccinated people. PAHO has denoted the public health risk of yellow fever as high, even though a single dose of the vaccine is enough to provide life-long protection. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rates in the 12 countries in the region prone to yellow fever were quite high, ranging between 57-100% in young children, according to PAHO. But rates have dropped to below the recommended 95% coverage in 10 out of the 12 countries with circulating yellow fever, leaving a “substantial proportion” of the population unprotected, according to PAHO. Symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, and vomiting occur three to four days after a mosquito bite. Roughly 15% of patients will develop a toxic, hemorrhagic phase. The mortality rate of this type of yellow fever is over 50%. Sylvatic, or “jungle,” yellow fever is fueling transmission in the Amazon region. While recent vaccination campaigns have increased the number of people protected, fewer vaccine suppliers, cost, and the long process to make the vaccine means that there’s a limited global supply. “Current supplies [are] unable to cover demand in the Americas and in Africa,” said PAHO in a statement. This has led countries to consider splitting doses among multiple people, so that each jab is one-fifth the normal dose. This smaller dose provides immunity for up to 12 months. Historically notorious, but preventable disease Yellow fever has a long history in the Americas, with periodic epidemics crippling cities and rural areas alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. But following the introduction of an effective vaccine, most cases remained concentrated in the Amazon and mountainous regions in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. But this year, Colombia and Brazil have detected cases outside the typical Amazon region, in the state of São Paulo in Brazil and the department (state) of Tolima in Colombia. This increase in yellow fever is primarily due to the reactivation of the jungle transmission cycle in the Amazon region, according to a recent PAHO epidemiological alert. The expansion of cases beyond the typical regions points to an increase in human-forest interaction in forest edges. “These areas provide ideal conditions for canopy-dwelling mosquitoes to transmit the disease to human populations from non-human reservoirs,” said PAHO in its alert. While this year marks a concerning surge, it still hasn’t reached the levels of epidemics of the past decade, such as in 2016, said Dr Andrea Vicari, unit chief of infectious hazards at the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccine hesitancy delays containment In Colombia, all yellow fever deaths have been of unvaccinated people. “All mortality has been among people not vaccinated,” said Dr Diana Pava, director of the Colombian National Institute of Health, told a PAHO briefing. The populations most affected are older adult men who work in the agricultural sector. Few, if any children catch yellow fever because the vaccine is “obligatory,” Pava noted. Children receive the jab with their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The same isn’t true for older generations, hence the concentration of cases in adults 65 and older. Yellow fever has now been detected in new regions in Brazil and Colombia, impacting unvaccinated older adults. Colombia’s rising cases highlight the difficulties in reaching older, rural, and isolated communities for vaccination. “In the rural areas, the beliefs may be different, or they don’t want the vaccine,” Pava said. Colombia’s health ministry is concentrating its outreach efforts on these areas, especially because any outbreak, even in a remote area, could lead to cases in more populated regions. For Brazil, which has seen over one hundred cases this past year, challenges include high vector density, and outright vaccine refusal out of fear, said Dr Daniel Ramos, arbovirus coordinator for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite this, Ramos praised Brazil’s high vaccination rate, which has protected Brazilians even with increased circulation of the disease in animals. Need to monitor animal hosts Changing ecological conditions have also made it easier for yellow fever to jump from non-human primates like monkeys, to people. Urbanization, “edge” habitats, and ecosystem fragmentation are all connected to a greater risk of yellow fever spread, noted Vicari. As a result, PAHO and health ministries have flagged the need to monitor yellow fever not only in humans, but in animals too. Tracking monkey deaths serves “an early warning to identify yellow fever circulation,” said PAHO in its alert. This could then alert officials to vaccinate people nearby. “While vaccination is certainly a key action, it must be integrated within a balanced response,” said Vicari, such as animal surveillance, clinical management, risk communication, vaccine stock management, and even contingency planning for potential urban outbreaks. Image Credits: PAHO, PAHO. Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
Mpox Vaccine Manufacturer Urged to Drop Price Amid Huge Shortfall in Africa 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan There is only enough funding for around half the mpox vaccine doses that Africa needs, with Sierra Leone and Uganda particularly short of vaccines, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) mpox lead. The continent needs 6.4 million doses to address the multiple outbreaks, but money still needs to be raised to pay for 3.5 million doses, Ngongo told a media briefing on Thursday. Sierra Leone requested 280,000 doses but has only received 50,000, while Uganda has received half of what they requested. These countries, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), account for 86% of all Africa’s current mpox cases. The non-profit consumer advocacy organisation Public Citizen this week urged Bavarian Nordic to lower its price for the mpox vaccine known as MVA-BN to help alleviate the shortage. “MVA-BN’s high price of $65 per dose threatens to further strain budgets and impede the response in Africa,” wrote Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk in an open letter to Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin. The US paid around $55.35 for the MVA-BN – almost $10 less per dose less than UNICEF – according to a Public Citizen report on the mpox vaccine shortfall published this week. Since 2022, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an mpox emergency and 2024, Bavarian Nordic has seen “a 523% increase in cumulative revenue from MVA-BN compared to the previous three years,” the report notes. “Increased sales and long-term stockpiling agreements with high-income countries should give Bavarian Nordic more flexibility to lower MVA-BN’s price.” In his letter, Maybarduk noted that “even the remaining doses ‘available’ under UNICEF and Bavarian Nordic’s one million dose supply agreement require additional funding before they can be deployed”. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the world’s biggest source of vaccinations, facing a funding crunch of its own, is unable to cover the cost of roughly 350,000 doses remaining from its one million dose supply agreement with Bavarian Nordic. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told the body’s board meeting on Tuesday that it projects a 20% reduction in total income in comparison to 2024 levels, with a 26% drop from the public sector to $250 million, “the lowest figure in more than a decade”. Screenshot US deals blow to global vaccination The loss of United States’ contribution a particular blow to global vaccination efforts. “The sudden interruption of funding and other critical support from the US underscores the need for renewed, public health-oriented commitments from all actors involved in the mpox response,” said Public Citizen. The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and defunding of the WHO has made the delivery of mpox vaccines, including 695,000 US-pledged doses “uncertain” and has “prompted a concurrent crisis of disrupted care and severe funding shortfalls across a range of disease areas and health services”, notes the Public Citizen report. While mpox cases appear to be declining on the continent, with a 30% drop in the past week, Ngongo warned that a drop in testing in the DRC may be behind the decline. “The testing rate in the DRC has declined by almost half… and now stands at 13%,” warned Ngongo, who added that the DRC’s cases appeared to have dropped by 42%. In the past week, Sierra Leone accounted for 63% of new confirmed cases, and currently has 958 active cases. Ghana has had a new resurgence of mpox cases, albeit still small, while Liberia and Malawi also have outbreaks. Cholera continues to surge Cholera is affecting 21 member states, and there have been almost 150,000 cases this year alone, Ngongo told the Africa CDC media briefing. Angola, which has been the epicentre of cholera, reported a 46% reduction in cases over the past week from 1,782 to 956 cases. Meanwhile, the WHO started a 10-day oral cholera vaccination campaign this week, aiming to reach more than 2.6 million people. “Since May, there has been a rapid increase in cholera cases in Khartoum State, with over 16 000 cumulative cases and 239 deaths reported across the state’s seven localities,” according to the WHO. “A conflict hotspot since April 2023, Khartoum State is facing an infrastructure breakdown and severe access constraints. The cholera outbreak has been fueled by poor water, sanitation and hygiene, caused by a shortage of safe water following attacks on major power plants and water sources, and compounded by displacement and the breakdown of the health system.” Image Credits: Africa CDC. First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
First Newborn Recruited for New Sepsis Study 13/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan A mother at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town with her newborn. The quest for new treatment options for newborns with drug-resistant sepsis took another step forward this week with the enrollment of the first baby in a trial of a combination of three older antibiotics. It is the second part of a clinical trial by the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) to evaluate various antibiotic combinations for newborn babies with sepsis. The first part of the trial, called NeoSep1, was launched in 2023 and it tested two antibiotics – fosfomycin and flomoxef. In this part of the trial, a third antibiotic, amikacin, has been added to the first two antibiotics. The two combinations will be ranked against five commonly used antibiotic regimens for neonatal sepsis with the overall goal of identifying the optimal treatments to reduce neonatal deaths. Baby One was enrolled at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, and GARDP aims to reach 3,000 newborn babies in hospitals across nine countries in Africa and Asia by 2028. Neonatal sepsis affects up to three million babies a year globally, and 250,000 babies in Africa alone die from sepsis every year. The crisis is exacerbated as an increasing number of newborns are becoming resistant to recommended antibiotic treatments. “Newborn babies are particularly vulnerable to infections, yet appropriate antibiotic treatments are often not available, especially in African countries,” said Sally Ellis, Children’s Antibiotics Project Leader for GARDP. “If a baby picks up a serious infection, it can be a matter of life and death. New antibiotic treatments are sorely needed. GARDP’s clinical trial on neonatal sepsis hopes to help fill the treatment gap, so that babies with sepsis stand a better chance of survival and a good outcome.” NeoSep1 is sponsored by the GARDP in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London; City St George’s at the University of London, and the paediatric science research grou,p Penta. The trial is part of a five-year project by a consortium of African and European partners called SNIP-AFRICA, which aims to reduce mortality among newborns with sepsis in hospitals in Africa. Image Credits: Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
The Pandemic Agreement is Adopted: Entry Into Force Awaits an Annex 13/06/2025 Ava Greenup & Daniela Morich WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (centre) applauding the vote on the pandemic agreement in Committee A, flanked by Committee A chair, Namibian Health Minister Dr Esperance Luvindao (left) and his Deputy Director-General, Dr Mike Ryan. The World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: Multilateralism remains alive and countries can still find common understandings on collective problems. Many steps still need to be completed, and thus the agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the trade-offs made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement (PA) on 20 May was the end of an arduous three-year negotiating process. But it also marked the beginning of another round of difficult negotiations on an annex for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS). The agreement will not be open for signature for at least another year as negotiations continue on the PABS Annex. It must be signed by at least 60 countries for it to enter into force, a process that could take years. This article reviews the tense 11th hour debates and tradeoffs that led to the final agreement, as well as the next steps to expect in the PABS negotiations. Tone shifts in late negotiations In 2025, the International Negotiating Body (INB) met twice. The 13th meeting of the INB took place on from 17 to 21 February, based on a new text proposed by the Bureau, a group of six country representatives leading the process. The list of unresolved articles was long and included some of the most contentious issues that had seen little convergence over the previous years: prevention and One Health, technology transfer, PABS, supply chain and logistics, and governance elements in Chapter III. This was also the first session held without the participation of the United States, following the announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) after the inauguration of the second Trump administration. Against this backdrop, progress was made – albeit slowly. Some observers suggested that the absence of the US, combined with a heightened sense of urgency due to mounting pressures on the global health architecture and ongoing funding cuts, might have contributed to a more constructive attitude of delegation and a shift in tone. Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto, leader of the US delegation during the Biden administration. The resumed session of INB13 – the final meeting on the INB calendar – took place on from 7 to 11 April, with nightly sessions stretching into the early hours of the morning on each day of negotiations. Progress was steady. Negotiators gradually cleared all remaining articles, reaching consensus on the framework for the PABS System – including a fixed commitment for each participating manufacturer to share a percentage of real-time production during pandemics, one of the key requests of developing countries – followed by agreement on prevention and One Health (see Ricardo Matute’s piece for an analysis of this topic). One by one, key issues began to fall into place during an extenuating week of negotiations. On the final day, negotiators worked continuously for over 24 hours to achieve full consensus. However, one final point of contention remained: Article 11 on technology transfer. Divisions persisted between countries favoring a strictly voluntary approach and those advocating for stronger obligations, including mechanisms to compel access to manufacturing know-how for pandemic-related health products during crises. With consensus on the full text within reach, the meeting was suspended around 9am on Saturday 12 April, after 24 hours of deliberation, and scheduled to resume on Tuesday 15th. In the early hours of April 16th, the text was fully greened – culminating in an emotional and symbolically powerful moment. The deadlock on technology transfer was resolved by inserting a footnote defining the expression “as mutually agreed” after each reference in the text. (A more detailed analysis of the outcome of this compromise is provided by Ellen ‘t Hoen in the Snapshot.) Adoption survives a surprise last-minute vote Following the green-lighting of the text in April, the INB transmitted the final draft of the agreement along with a draft resolution that was agreed upon shortly after the finalization of the agreement, to the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) for formal adoption. The PA was the first item for consideration in Committee A, one of the main committees of the WHA focusing on programmatic and technical issues, and with a consensus ready text, agreement should have been straightforward. Yet, a last-minute curveball came from Slovakia, which unexpectedly called for a vote. A statement released by the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed that the agreement “violates the principle of the sovereignty of the member states and disproportionately interferes with the area of human rights.” Despite this challenge, member states overwhelmingly showed support for this hard-won treaty: the final vote recorded 124 in favor, zero objections and 11 abstentions. A number of countries were absent from the meeting or had their right to vote suspended due to their arrears in assessed contributions. The following day, the text moved to the plenary session, where it was adopted by consensus, surrounded by cheers and a surge of emotion in the room. Key officials of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body celebrate after the WHA adopts the pandemic agreement on 20 May 2025. Several crucial steps before entry into force Negotiators deliberately designed the PA’s architecture to accommodate further negotiations, particularly those required to operationalize the PABS System. Although the PA includes a dedicated article on PABS, it merely establishes the system’s foundational principles. The specifics — such as how benefits will be shared and what obligations apply to countries and companies — remain to be determined. To this end, the WHA mandated the creation of an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG), open to all WHO Member States, to negotiate the elements necessary to operationalize the PABS System in the form of an annex to the agreement that will have to be adopted separately by the WHA. A consequential addition was made to Article 33 on signature: the PA will only be open for signature once the PABS Annex has been adopted by the WHA. The IGWG is scheduled to hold its first meeting no later than 15 July 2025, during which it will presumably determine the composition of the Bureau that will lead the next phase of negotiations, and its program of work. It is unclear whether former INB Bureau members will be reappointed or if new leadership will step in. The IGWG must present the outcome of its work – whatever this may be – to the 79th WHA in May 2026. This leaves less than a year to resolve one of the agreement’s most complex and contentious components. (A detailed analysis of what to expect from these negotiations is addressed by Adam Strobeyko in another piece of this Snapshot.) Should consensus prove elusive, it will fall to the WHA to decide how to proceed. Importantly, the IGWG’s mandate extends beyond finalizing the Annex. It is also tasked with laying the groundwork for the agreement’s implementation and eventual entry into force. These tasks include drafting the rules of procedure for the Conference of the Parties, establishing financial rules and a draft budget; defining the structure and functions of the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network; suggesting reporting obligations; and proposing details on the functioning of the implementation mechanism for the PA. (These institutional and procedural issues are explored further by Gian Luca Burci in in Snapshot.) Once the annex is adopted, the PA will be open for signature and ratification. It will require ratification by at least 60 countries to enter into force — a process that could take years. As many analysts have indicated, the adoption of this historic agreement marks not an endpoint but rather a beginning. As negotiations continue on the PABS Annex and the operational structures needed to implement the agreement, the focus must now shift to ensuring that these ambitious commitments are translated into real-world impact, strengthening global preparedness and response to future pandemics. This is one of six article in the latest Governing Pandemics Snapshot produced by the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela Morich is Senior Manager and Adviser at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Ava Greenup is Project Associate of the Governing Pandemics Initiative at the Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute. Image Credits: WHO. Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy Loading Comments... You must be logged in to post a comment.
Taming the High Seas: UN Ocean Treaty Nears Entry Into Force 12/06/2025 Stefan Anderson The world is within striking distance of enforcing the first legally binding treaty to protect vast areas of waters beyond national jurisdictions that cover two-thirds of the planet’s surface, a historic step that would place biodiversity in the long-lawless high seas under international law for the first time. Nineteen countries ratified the High Seas Treaty this week at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, bringing the total to 50 ratifications, just 10 short of the 60 needed for the treaty to take legal effect. The agreement was first passed by consensus at the UN and signed by 132 nations in 2023. “The surge of ratifications of the High Seas Treaty is a tidal wave of hope,” said Rebecca Hubbard, director of the High Seas Alliance. “While many international agreements take years to enter into force, the action here in Nice today is a testament to the global momentum and urgency of action for the ocean.” French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that five additional countries would ratify the treaty immediately, with another 15 formally committed to joining on confirmed dates after the conference and a further 15 pledging to complete ratification by year’s end. The rapid pace of ratifications represents lightning speed by UN standards. While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea took 12 years to reach the ratification threshold, this agreement could enter into force just two years after signing. “This means that this treaty will be able to enter into force on January 1 of next year, which means we would finally have an international framework to regulate and administer the high seas,” Macron said. “So that’s a win.” Why the treaty matters and what comes next The High Seas Treaty, or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty in official UN speak, would mark a historic moment in regulating the global commons from the overexploitation pushing the planet’s forests, oceans, weather systems, flora and wildlife to the limit. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” The treaty establishes binding requirements for countries to protect marine areas beyond their territorial waters, ensure sustainable use of marine resources such as fish, technology transfer, and mandate environmental impact assessments for commercial activities such as industrial fishing in international waters. Key provisions include protecting 30% of international waters by the end of the decade, up from just 1.5%, which complements the broader 30×30 goal under the Montreal-Kunming agreement, which calls on nations to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, including their territorial waters. The European Union, Brazil, and South Korea have championed the treaty. But vocal opposition has come from Trump’s United States—a significant setback given America’s role in crafting the agreement under the previous administration. Major players who haven’t signed include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Japan. Once the 60-ratification threshold is reached, a 120-day countdown begins before the treaty becomes international law. Within a year of entry into force, the first Conference of the Parties will convene—adding another “COP” to the growing list of UN climate, biodiversity, and desertification summits that has environmental diplomats joking they need new acronyms. Undecided nations face a deadline: countries must ratify before the first Ocean COP to secure voting rights in the consensus-based decision-making process that will determine how the treaty operates. Entry into force marks the beginning of a familiar UN process, with multiple agreements running in parallel and competing for limited diplomatic resources. Ratified members must establish enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, secure funding, and build the institutional framework to implement the treaty’s provisions. Without protection against the mounting pressures of climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification, record temperatures, and industrial-scale fishing by massive trawler fleets, marine ecosystems face escalating threats. Fish stocks are collapsing. Overconsumption and illegal fishing are pushing marine life to the brink. “The deep sea cannot become the Wild West,” Guterres said. “When we protect marine areas, life returns. What was lost in a generation can return in a generation. The ocean of our ancestors – teeming with life and diversity – can be more than legend. It can be our legacy. The absent architect In what is becoming a familiar pattern in the international organization world, the United States and its absence cast a large shadow over the proceedings in Nice, which were shrouded in wildfire smoke crossing the Atlantic to the Mediterranean city from Canada, America’s “51st state.” Last week, the US confirmed it would not send an official delegation to the talks, with the State Department saying the ocean preservation targets in the treaty were “at odds” with the administration’s position. The US instead sent two observers to the negotiations, both political appointees from President Trump’s taskforce tasked with dismantling US engagement at home and abroad with efforts to fight the climate crisis. Delegations are normally made up of scientists. The tectonic shift in the White House is a major blow for the High Seas Treaty, which the Biden administration was key to shepherding over the line. John Kerry, Biden’s special envoy for climate, wrote in the Financial Times that the treaty could “provide critical reassurance to the world that the multilateral architecture built after the Second World War is just as relevant today.” Despite Kerry’s sentiment, it is clear—from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, to kneecapping US efforts to monitor pollutants that cause climate change, and a complete U-turn on its support for the plastic treaty due in August—that the architect of that system has left it behind. The Trump administration issued an executive order, “RESTORING AMERICAN SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS,” lauded by the fishing industry and the latest step in the withdrawal from marine protection, which includes reopening national marine monuments off New England and Pacific islands to commercial fishing. “Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood, including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology,” the administration wrote. “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” Deep sea drama Trump has also thrown his weight behind another key threat to the oceans: deep sea mining. In April, the administration said it would work to “unleash” America’s offshore resource extraction in the deep sea, asserting the US’s right to mine seabeds in international waters. The move defies the International Seabed Authority, the body in charge of such decisions under the Law of the Sea, to which the US is not party, which has placed a moratorium on mining until the full scientific picture can emerge about the threats it poses to nature. The President of the ISA, biologist Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who defeated an industry-connected opponent in a critical election last year, called Trump’s move “a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance.” “The abyss is not for sale, any more than Greenland is up for grabs,” Macron said. In another direct shot at Trump, the French president contrasted his nation’s new “Neptune Mission” for scientific exploration of the world’s oceans as the absent US charts a course to Mars. “Rather than rushing off to Mars, let’s already get to know our final frontier and our best friend, the ocean,” Macron said. Familiar money problems The financial challenges facing the High Seas Treaty are daunting even by UN environmental standards. The ocean-focused Sustainable Development Goal, known as “Life Below Water,” is by far the least funded, receiving just $10 billion over five years from 2015 to 2019—less than 0.01% of global sustainable development funding. The UN estimates marine protection requires at least $175 billion annually. Figures from the UN High Level Panel on Ocean Economies show the funding gap comes at a considerable cost, holding back critical progress on marine conservation, fisheries reform, and the blue economy, where every $1 invested yields at least $5 in global benefits by 2050. In March, the United States announced that it “rejects and denounces” the sustainable development goals altogether amid a projected $4 trillion total financing gap to achieve their targets, the first deadline for which was 2020. “Agenda 2030 and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans,” Edward Heartney of the US mission told the General Assembly. The $175 billion in annual funding will be difficult to come by as the financial climate for international environmental treaties grows increasingly crowded as the climate crisis intensifies. Funding gaps in the hundreds of millions already exist in UN negotiations from biodiversity to climate to desertification, competing for the same limited funds that no state or bloc appears able or willing to provide. The UN itself, and many of its agencies, are facing existential financial crises largely as a result of the US administration’s exit from the international diplomatic world. A high-level conference in Monaco in the days before the Nice summit attempted to galvanize funding, resulting in the launch of a public-private partnership that isn’t expected to be operational until 2028 at the earliest, when the next ocean conference is scheduled. Subsidies strike back Money is being spent on the ocean, just not on protection. “These are symptoms of a system in crisis, and they are feeding off each other,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “The ocean generates half of the oxygen we breathe. It feeds 3 billion people and sustains 600 million livelihoods. The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it.” While funding for conservation remains functionally non-existent, subsidies that promote overfishing total $35.4 billion annually. Subsidies going directly to fuel for fishing vessels—some floating factories that rival any ship on the open water in size—alone total $7.2 billion per year, far outweighing investment in SDG 14. The result is ships taking economically unviable voyages supported by public funds, with fishing fleets operating at 2.5 times sustainable capacity, benefiting large-scale industrial operations over small-scale fishers. The oddity of the fishing industry’s subsidy framework is that, on paper, unsustainable management of fisheries in the long term will decimate the companies that cause their extinction. The National Institutes of Health estimates that underperforming fisheries cost fishing companies between $51 and $83 billion every year in unrealized economic benefits from better management of fish stocks. In total, the current course charted by industrial fishing trawlers will wipe $2 trillion off the balance sheets of companies in the next three decades. The world’s largest subsidisers are China ($7.3 billion), the EU ($3.8 billion), the US ($3.4 billion), South Korea ($2.6 billion), and Japan ($2.4 billion). A process known as “Fish 2” is underway at the World Trade Organization seeking to limit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing. A first-of-its-kind InfluenceMap report found that 29 of the 30 largest seafood companies oppose the very protections that would ensure their survival, actively lobbying against marine reserves and fishing restrictions. The list includes household names like Cargill and Mitsubishi Corporation— yes, the car company, little known for being one of the world’s largest fishing conglomerates. “Protection is not the problem—overfishing is the problem,” said marine scientist Enric Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.” COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts This site uses cookies to help give you the best experience on our website. Cookies enable us to collect information that helps us personalise your experience and improve the functionality and performance of our site. By continuing to read our website, we assume you agree to this, otherwise you can adjust your browser settings. Please read our cookie and Privacy Policy. Our Cookies and Privacy Policy
COVID Critics Dominate New US Vaccine Advisory Committee 12/06/2025 Kerry Cullinan US President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy during the presidential election campaign in 2024. Three days after removing all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory group, United States Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has made eight new appointments – at least half of whom have spoken out against the handling of COVID-19 and vaccines. The new appointees to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) are Dr Joseph Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Dr Robert Malone, Dr Cody Meissner, Dr Michael Ross, Dr James Pagano and Vicky Pebsworth. Making the announcement via X, Kennedy said that the eight will attend the committee’s scheduled meeting on 25 June. It is unclear whether additional appointments are in the offing, as eight is the statutory minimum for ACIP. Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, said they did not work and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work. Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, Malone was banned from Twitter during the pandemic for violating the platform’s misinformation policies and The New York Times has described him as a “COVID vaccine misinformation star”. Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis not measles, and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. Malone made these claims on social media before the child’s death had been made public. However, the Texas health department announced Hildebrand’s death on 6 April due to “measles pulmonary failure”, and noted that “the child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions”. Kennedy describes Malone as “a physician-scientist and biochemist known for his early contributions to mRNA vaccine technology”. Alternatives to vaccines Pebsworth, Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, is a director and board member at the National Vaccine Information Center. The centre is known for questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and encouraging people to seek alternatives to vaccines. Some 40% of the centre’s funding is from Dr Joseph Mercola, who sells alternative health products and was named the biggest source of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook and Twitter by the Center Countering Digital Hate. A biostatistician and epidemiologist, Kulldorff was co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration with Dr Jay Battacharya, new director of the National Institutes of Health, which favoured herd immunity to address COVID-19 for all but the most vulnerable. Meissner, Professor of Paediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, was part the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory panel that recommended the use of COVID vaccines. However, he has spoken out against children wearing masks and is in favour of children and pregnant children being excluded from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule. Levi, Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines Hibbeln is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician and Ross is a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, Kennedy pledged to keep ACIP in place to Senator Bill Cassidy, who was considering blocking his appointment as health secretary. Posts navigation Older postsNewer posts