ESWI in the media

JUNE 2022

Monkeypox makes pledges of pandemic solidarity look hollow

“At a pandemic preparedness conference I attended in Brussels last week, few scientists were prepared to rule out a monkeypox pandemic. A big theme of the conference, focused on respiratory viruses, was ensuring that the mistakes of Covid-19, such as delayed reporting of cases and poor messaging, are not repeated. One proposed remedy is the WHO pandemic preparedness treaty, sometimes called a global pandemic treaty. The treaty would legally bind signatories to such practices as timely data-sharing. A “zero draft” will come out in August. The treaty is already the subject of false claims that claim it will strip states of sovereignty and mandate imprisonment for the unvaccinated. The real obstacles are more prosaic: since the WHO is a technical agency rather than a legal one, could it enforce treaty obligations?”

JUNE 2022 • ESWI PRESS RELEASE

International community will gather in Brussels to discuss pandemic preparedness.

On 21 June, ESWI hosted a summit on the continuing pandemic threat posed by respiratory viruses, entitled “Pandemic Preparedness: Where Science and Policy Meet”. Experts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EU’s new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response unit (HERA), the African Union (AU) and other institutions participated in a discussion aimed at formulating a set of recommendations on predicting, planning, and responding to future pandemics.

OCTOBER 2022 • ESWI PRESS RELEASE

Pandemic Preparedness: Where Science and Policy Meet.

ESWI took part in the WHO public hearing on a new international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, 29-30 September 2022.