The importance of getting the ethics right in a pandemic treaty
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lancet Infect Dis
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous weaknesses in pandemic preparedness and response, including
underfunding, inadequate surveillance, and inequitable distribution of countermeasures. To overcome these
weaknesses for future pandemics, WHO released a zero draft of a pandemic treaty in February, 2023, and
subsequently a revised bureau’s text in May, 2023. COVID-19 made clear that pandemic prevention, preparedness,
and response reflect choices and value judgements. These decisions are therefore not a purely scientific or technical
exercise, but are fundamentally grounded in ethics. The latest treaty draft reflects these ethical considerations by
including a section entitled Guiding Principles and Approaches. Most of these principles are ethical—they establish
core values that undergird the treaty. Unfortunately, the treaty draft’s set of principles are numerous, overlapping,
and show inadequate coherence and consistency. We propose two improvements to this section of the draft pandemic
treaty. First, key guiding ethical principles should be clearer and more precise than they currently are. Second, the
link between ethical principles and policy implementation should be clearly established and define boundaries on
acceptable interpretation, ensuring that signatories abide by these principles.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
pandemic, COVID-19, inadequate surveillance