Inside Geneva: is the world brave enough to agree on a pandemic treaty?

Four years ago, our lives were upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries locked down, millions became ill, millions died. And when the vaccine finally arrived, it was not fairly distributed. Rich countries bought too many, poor countries waited, with nothing. “What we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic was collapse. Basically, a complete failure of international cooperation,” says Suerie Moon, from the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Surely we can do better? Countries are gathering in Geneva to try to hammer out a pandemic treaty. Do they have the vision? And the courage? “There’s been so much lip service paid to equity, but when it actually comes to nailing down what that means, and how to avoid a repeat, it seems like governments are struggling,” says Kerry Cullinan, deputy editor of Health Policy Watch. What about the vaccine manufacturers? Are they ready to share? Thomas Cueni, outgoing head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers ...