Episode Details

Since 2021, countries have been drafting a treaty to help the world better prevent and respond to pandemics. On April 16, the WHO announced an agreement for the world's first pandemic treaty. In this episode: a look at what it took to get here, what provisions were included and excluded, and what it means that the U.S. was not at the table for negotiations and will not be a signer.

Alexandra Phelan is an expert in global health law and an associate professor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• Why We Desperately Need—and Still Don’t Have—A Global Pandemic Treaty—Public Health On Call (June 2024)

• Center for Health Security Urges the Inclusion of Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) in Pandemic Agreement—The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

• Countries Agree on Treaty Aimed at Preventing Global Health Crises—The New York Times

• Global pandemic treaty finalized, without U.S., in ‘a victory f