The 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) concluded in June 2024, and global leaders have shared their reflections, drawing lessons from COVID-19 that highlight common shortcomings. These include deficiencies in research and development, technology transfer, access and benefit-sharing, supply chain logistics, regulatory enhancements, and international coordination and communication. Ironically, these very issues have stalled progress on the pandemic agreement. What lies ahead? Will delays in preparation prove costly?

While not meeting treaty or convention status, the Pandemic Agreement is evolving into a comprehensive global framework for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. From a global public health and security perspective, expanding beyond superficial statements of readiness is necessary.

ASPHER continues to review the pandemic ‘lessons learnt’ from European countries. Country-level inquiries into pandemic preparedness deficiencies continue to provide valuable insights. Stemming from the work of the ASPHER Public Health Emergencies Task Force, Members have published an editorial outlining key challenges.

Read the full editoral here.

Bauernfeind, A., Reid, J., Mccallum, A., Sheek-Hussein, M., Magid, A., Lopes, H., Cunningham, C., Green, M.S., Koivusalo, M., Sarkar, A., Middleton, J. and Davidovitch, N. (2024), No time to lose: Pandemic agreement—Urgency over complacency; unity over fragmentation. Int J Health Plann Mgmt. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3847