For the Pandemic Accord to be effective, member states must urgently focus negotiations to define its scope, including its definition of “pandemic,” and ensure the definition avoids the pitfalls of past mistakes, argue Noor Shakfeh, Fifa Rahman, and Katri Bertram
Member states of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Body (INB)1 have roughly nine months left before they need to present a draft outcome to the World Health Assembly in May 2024. While their negotiations to date have understandably focused on provisions related to access and benefit-sharing, and distribution of countermeasures, the implementation of these as well as all other provisions will ultimately depend on whether an outbreak meets member states’ negotiated definition of “pandemic.”
At a joint meeting in July 2023 with the working group to amend the International Health Regulations (WGIHR),2 member states met to discuss the scope of the accord, including the definition of a “pandemic.” Though formal negot