Seventy-five years ago on Friday – World Health Day – the World Health Organization’s (WHO) founding constitution became the first document to formally recognize health as a human right. Three-quarters of a century later, a WHO battered by the COVID-19 pandemic is juggling how to adapt to new health threats with achieving its most basic […] Continue reading ->
International NGOs and activists have called out the US for siding with China to exclude the public from seeing drafts of the pandemic accord as it is being negotiated by World Health Organization (WHO) member states. “The attempt to create a veil of secrecy now surrounding the substantive and technical text-based negotiations on the WHO […] Continue reading ->
The European Union (EU) has prioritised “common good” proposals and “legal provisions” in its initial text-based proposals for the pandemic accord, according to a rationale published alongside these proposals. Both documents were initially published late Monday on the Delegation of the European Union to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva page of the […] Continue reading ->
While WHO’s recent Executive Board meeting saw a considerable amount of sound and fury over the proposed pandemic treaty, an obscurely titled but vital appendix of updated “best buys” to combat noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) was also briefly on stage.  This new set of cost-effective recipes to combat what are now the world’s biggest killers provides […] Continue reading ->
The draft pandemic accord needs more emphasis on preventing pandemics at their source – where animal pathogens “spill over” to people – according to a number of organisations participating in a consultation on the document’s “zero draft” on Wednesday. Negotiations between World Health Organization (WHO) member states on the draft are due to begin at the […] Continue reading ->