The job of global health negotiators working on a new Pandemic Agreement, and to amend the International Health Regulations, was already stacked against all odds. This has become even more difficult with Israel’s retaliation on Palestine following attacks by Hamas. The incessant attacks by Israel on health facilities in Palestinian Territories, directly speaks to the mandate of the WHO. It was no surprise that the crisis, bled into the discussions on the seventh inter-governmental meeting on the Pandemic Agreement this week in Geneva. Undoubtedly the stench of war pervaded the sterilized confines of the WHO headquarters where member states met this week.
It is on this fractured, splintered notion of international cooperation that diplomats have to now sew together new and complex rules on surveillance, information exchange and access to medical countermeasures. Commitments on accountability and transparency are also being sought. Tough that.
In this edition edition, my colleague Tessa Jager presents to you statements from a few countries that reflect the mess of geopolitics, and their positions on the evolving discussions towards a Pandemic Agreement. Our readers tell us, that they find these statements useful - as a record for posterity.