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Editorial published on Does the new global pandemic treaty have enough teeth? in The Indian Express on April 22nd, 2025 |
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Topics for UPSC Mains |
Public Health Challenges in India, Global health crisis |
The COVID-19 pandemic showed the world how unprepared we were for a health crisis on such a large scale. People around the world struggled to get enough vaccines, treatments, and even basic healthcare. As the world recovered, many leaders agreed that something must be done to prevent future pandemics from causing the same chaos. To address this, countries came together to create a global pandemic treaty. This treaty aims to improve how we respond to future health emergencies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working with countries around the world to create a legally binding treaty to handle future pandemics better. This treaty has been in the making for over three years and is expected to be finalized in May 2025. The goal is to ensure that when a new pandemic happens, countries will work together to protect lives, share resources, and act in a coordinated way.
This treaty is only the second legally binding agreement in WHO’s 75-year history. The first was the tobacco control treaty in 2003. The new pandemic treaty focuses on making sure countries can share important medical information and resources like vaccines and medicines. It also aims to make sure that everyone, no matter where they live, has equal access to life-saving treatments.
The world saw the chaos caused by COVID-19. Countries that could make their own vaccines kept them for their own citizens, while poorer countries had to wait. This unfairness meant that many people, especially in low-income nations, couldn’t get the help they needed. A report in 2022 even showed that more than a million lives could have been saved if vaccines had been shared more fairly.
The pandemic also showed how uncoordinated the world’s response was. Each country acted on its own without working closely with others. This caused confusion, delays, and hurt efforts to control the virus. In addition, countries weren’t sharing important scientific information about the virus quickly enough, which slowed down research and the creation of vaccines.
This treaty is meant to solve these problems. It encourages countries to cooperate more, share important information, and make sure vaccines and treatments are available to everyone.
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The global pandemic treaty includes several important rules that countries will follow in case of a future health crisis:
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India is an important country in the global health system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, India became one of the largest producers of vaccines and helped supply them to many countries. Because of this, India has a strong interest in the global pandemic treaty.
India supports the treaty’s goal of making vaccines and treatments available to everyone. India also agrees with the idea of sharing knowledge and technology so that countries can make their own medicines and vaccines. India believes this is important for developing nations to be able to handle health emergencies on their own in the future.
However, India also has some concerns. For example, the treaty could limit a country’s ability to protect its own industries. India wants to make sure that it can still support its own businesses and public health needs while being part of the global response.
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Even though many people support the treaty, there are several criticisms. Some of the main problems with the treaty are:
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The global pandemic treaty is an important step in preparing for future health crises. It is designed to make sure that countries share resources, act together, and protect everyone’s health during a pandemic. However, the treaty has some weaknesses. The WHO doesn’t have the power to enforce its rules, and some important countries like the U.S. are not involved. Also, there are concerns about how the treaty will work in practice, especially when it comes to sharing resources and encouraging innovation.
For the treaty to be successful, countries must work together and make sure that everyone, especially poorer nations, has access to life-saving medicines and vaccines. The treaty is a good start, but there is still much to be done to ensure that it works well in the future.
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