At the height of the pandemic, world leaders proposed a bold idea. They envisioned a pandemic treaty that would obligate countries to work together to prevent future health emergencies like COVID — in other words, to cooperate in a way that didn't quite happen when SARS-CoV-2 struck.
The World Health Assembly set the deadline for such an accord: May 2024. The idea was to light a fire under the participants — and have the accord ready when the assembly convenes in Geneva. But negotiations have seized up around a series of issues. How would such a treaty be enforced? How would it be financed?
