The role of governments in preparing for the next pandemic

This article is written by Laura Flores Reyes, Outreach and Governance Officer at Club de Madrid. The opinions expressed in this publication belong to the author. They do not represent the views of the author's employer.

• The problem: The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that our governments are not ready to face health emergencies of this magnitude. Millions of lives were lost due to a lack of political will, solidarity and self-interest approaches.
• Why it matters: It is not possible to predict when the next pandemic will be, but the concerning relationship between humans and the planet and the deteriorating environmental conditions make it very likely that this won’t be the last time we have to confront a pandemic in our lifetimes.
• The solution: Investing in mechanisms and initiatives that promote medical innovations, particularly in the Global South, and ensuring that public research and development (R&D) is affordable and accessible to everyone, everywhere are crucial factors.

Three years later, where are we now?

Three years after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, a staggering number of 6.8 million deaths have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, 1.3 million of those deaths could have been prevented with a more equitable global vaccine distribution. This will come as a surprise to many, but not to those who remember the impact on people’s lives at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic or the Ebola outbreak.

This pandemic shook our societies – taking lives, increasing the inequality gap, disrupting daily life and dominating the international agenda in all countries for more than two years. It also served to show the lack of political will and solidarity from world leaders, unable to agree and coordinate a global response to put an end to this crisis. During the last three years, health experts and advocates have been calling for concrete and global measures to respond more inclusively and effectively to health emergencies of this magnitude. The adoption of a Pandemic Accord, a temporary waiver of intellectual property rules and a more equal sharing of the burden of the funding needed for pandemic-related products and infrastructure have been some of the recommendations to date.

While we may not know when, we all know there will be a new global health crisis, and for that, we must be prepared.

In the absence of an effective global strategy to stop the virus, different countries led concrete actions to advance towards this goal. India and South Africa, for example, championed advocacy for facilitating wider access to technologies needed for the production of vaccines and treatments, while Spain was the first country to license a product to WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), an unprecedented step towards achieving more equitable access to health technologies at a time of extreme vaccine nationalism.

As always, the ones most affected in these situations are the most vulnerable communities. UN Women reported that violence against women and girls rose considerably during the first year of the pandemic, while a chilling number of 11 million girls were put at risk of not returning to school. Save the Children also warned of the greatest surge in child marriage rates in 25 years, and estimated that 500,000 more girls risked forced marriage as a result of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

The impact that this pandemic had on our societies must not be repeated. Many around the world are working towards this objective, including over 200 world leaders who recently called on governments to start working on a pandemic prevention, preparedness and response strategy with equity and human rights at its core. While we may not know when, we all know there will be a new global health crisis, and for that, we must be prepared.

Preparing for the next pandemic

In February 2023, the zero draft of the much-anticipated Pandemic Accord was released by WHO. The document, while still a draft, was a small step in the right direction and was positively received by civil society organisations and health experts, who hope to be able to influence these two areas in particular.

1. Intellectual property barriers: the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated that a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) cannot be guided by national and self-interest approaches. A commitment from governments to automatically waive intellectual property when a PHEIC is declared is fundamental if we want to avoid the mistakes from the past. The zero draft understands this and supports “time-bound waivers of intellectual property rights”. This measure would be crucial for low and middle-income countries which would be able to accelerate and scale up manufacturing of vaccines, tests and other pandemic-related products and distribute them on time among their populations, reducing in this way the number of victims to future viruses and diseases.

2. Increase the investment in scientific innovation and manufacturing capacity: initiatives such as WHO’s mRNA Technology Transfer Hub in South Africa are key to ensuring that the global south has access to the necessary technology and technical know-how to make mRNA vaccines of their own. The global south cannot rely on the charity of high-income countries to face these kinds of challenges, so increasing the investment in a network of mRNA ‘vaccine hubs’ for low and middle-income countries would be a determining element that would allow these countries to be more prepared when the next health emergency strikes again. The political, financial, and technical support of governments across the world, particularly of high-income countries, is essential to ensure the continuation and expansion of these initiatives.

Without political will, these recommendations cannot become a reality. It is undeniable that there is much to be done on the pandemic prevention, preparedness and response front but the lessons of Covid-19 are recent and governments across the world should use this momentum to push for a Pandemic Accord that will truly allow our societies to be prepared for the next health emergency. Governments must make a priority to agree on a text that protects the most vulnerable, promotes fair and affordable access to vaccines and treatments, and most importantly, has human rights and equity at its core.

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