Most countries were unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and only sporadically implemented World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. As the virus risks becoming endemic, what are the next steps? Some world leaders and the WHO have suggested an international pandemic treaty. Experts and the WHO disagree on whether the approach is realistic. Last March, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus along with several world leaders and international agencies called for an international pandemic treaty and a “One Health” approach to encourage collective action. Among those that supported his call were French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The new treaty named, Treaty for pandemic preparedness and response, would ask states to collaborate in the fight against pandemics nationally, regionally, and globally. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) told SWI swissinfo.ch that "Switzerland is participating in the first reflection”. Some...
