Losing time: End this pandemic and secure the future

Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th UN General Assembly 15 The Global Health Threats Council remains key to the reforms required Core to the Independent Panel’s recommended package of reforms is the establishment of a Global Health Threats Council by the UN General Assembly to galvanise leadership and accountability to end the COVID-19 pandemic and better prepare to stave off the next. [...] Losing time: End this pandemic and secure the future 21 of 37 Strengthening the authority and independence of the WHO and developing new legal instruments are pivotal to the package of reforms required. [...] The case for a treaty The Independent Panel’s close examination of the chronology of early events in the COVID-19 pandemic led to the conclusion that the International Health Regulations should be supplemented by a framework convention on pandemics.31 The Working Group on strengthening preparedness and response has made significant progress in clarifying that strengthening the International Health. [...] The scale of the COVID-19 disaster must be the impulse for the international community to make more effective use of binding international agreements to secure collective interests across the spectrum of pandemic preparedness and response, from preparedness capacity building to alert and investigation obligations and fair access Losing time: End this pandemic and secure the future 23 of 37 to resp. [...] The Special Session of the World Health Assembly at the end of November needs to signal agreement to move forward on a new legal instrument, and the regular session of the Assembly in May 2022 needs to set in place key reforms and not just initiate discussions of what they may be in the future.