Governing pandemics snapshot. Issue 6

The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adoption of the Pandemic Agreement sent a powerful message: multilateralism remains alive and countries can still pull together to find common understandings on collective problems. But many steps on the Agreement still remain to be completed, and thus will not be open for signature for at least another year, as negotiations continue on contentious issues around an Annex on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). This sixth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot explores the tradeoffs that were made in a final agreement and the steps remaining for it to be ready for parties’ signature, setting off the countdown for it to enter into force. We also look at the implications of the final text on other critical issues, including: prevention measures and One Health, technology transfer, and governance issues