Four years after the emergence of Covid-19, the conversation in global public health has moved on from dealing with an immediate crisis to how we can best prepare for the next pandemic.
Having been through one such disaster, we now have many useful lessons to draw on. But not all of our leaders have absorbed the same takeaways. Some very misguided ideas on pandemic preparedness are still afoot. In particular, there remains a campaign to strip intellectual property protections from Covid-19 tests and treatments.
The debate will likely come to a head next week when members of the World Trade Organization meet in Abu Dhabi. But the reality is that far from hindering access to pandemic-related medical technology, IP rights ensured that vaccines and then treatments were widely distributed all over the world. We should build on this system -- not tear it down.
