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Cooperación Internacional , Pandemias , Humanos , Pandemias/prevención & control , Salud PúblicaRESUMEN
Negotiations ought not focus on enforcement and sanctions.
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Cooperación Internacional , Derecho Internacional , Pandemias , Pandemias/legislación & jurisprudencia , Pandemias/prevención & control , Cooperación Internacional/legislación & jurisprudencia , Organización Mundial de la Salud , HumanosRESUMEN
Equity is a foundational concept for the new World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Treaty. WHO Member States are currently negotiating to turn this undefined concept into tangible outcomes by borrowing a policy mechanism from international environmental law: "access and benefit-sharing" (ABS).
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Cooperación Internacional , Pandemias , Humanos , Derecho Internacional , Políticas , Organización Mundial de la SaludAsunto(s)
Antibacterianos , Farmacorresistencia Bacteriana , Clima , Cambio Climático , Calentamiento Global , HumanosRESUMEN
Pathogen samples and scientific data are bargaining chips in a global argument about who gets what in a pandemic.
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Política de Salud , Difusión de la Información , Cooperación Internacional , Derecho Internacional , Organización Mundial de la Salud , COVID-19 , Vacunas contra la COVID-19/provisión & distribución , Salud Global , Política de Salud/legislación & jurisprudencia , Humanos , Difusión de la Información/legislación & jurisprudencia , Pandemias , Salud PúblicaRESUMEN
Policy Points Equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine in all countries remains a key policy objective, but experience of previous pandemics suggests access will be limited in developing countries, despite the rapid development of three successful vaccine candidates. The COVAX Facility seeks to address this important issue, but the prevalence of vaccine nationalism threatens to limit the ability of the facility to meet both its funding targets and its ambitious goals for vaccine procurement. A failure to adequately address the underlying lack of infrastructure in developing countries threatens to further limit the success of the COVAX Facility. CONTEXT: Significant effort has been directed toward developing a COVID-19 vaccine, which is viewed as the route out of the pandemic. Much of this effort has coalesced around COVAX, the multilateral initiative aimed at accelerating the development of COVID-19 vaccines, and ensuring they are equitably available in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper represents the first significant analysis of COVAX, and the extent to which it can be said to have successfully met these aims. METHODS: This paper draws on the publicly available policy documents made available by the COVAX initiatives, as well as position papers and public statements from governments around the world with respect to COVID-19 vaccines and equitable access. We analyze the academic literature regarding access to vaccines during the H1N1 pandemic. Finally, we consider the WHO Global Allocation System, and its principles, which are intended to guide COVAX vaccine deployment. FINDINGS: We argue that the funding mechanism deployed by the COVAX Pillar appears to be effective at fostering at-risk investments in research and development and the production of doses in advance of confirmation of clinical efficacy, but caution that this represents a win-win situation for vaccine manufacturers, providing them with opportunity to benefit regardless of whether their vaccine candidate ever goes on to gain regulatory approval. We also argue that the success of the COVAX Facility with respect to equitable access to vaccine is likely to be limited, primarily as a result of the prevalence of vaccine nationalism, whereby countries adopt policies which heavily prioritize their own public health needs at the expense of others. CONCLUSIONS: Current efforts through COVAX have greatly accelerated the development of vaccines against COVID-19, but these benefits are unlikely to flow to LMICs, largely due to the threat of vaccine nationalism.
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Vacunas contra la COVID-19/provisión & distribución , Equidad en Salud/normas , Cooperación Internacional , COVID-19/prevención & control , Vacunas contra la COVID-19/economía , Salud Global , Humanos , Pandemias/prevención & control , SARS-CoV-2 , Organización Mundial de la SaludAsunto(s)
Contratos , Industria Farmacéutica/legislación & jurisprudencia , Salud Global/economía , Equidad en Salud/economía , Vacunas Virales/economía , Vacunas contra la COVID-19 , Infecciones por Coronavirus/economía , Infecciones por Coronavirus/prevención & control , Salud Global/legislación & jurisprudencia , Humanos , Vacunas Virales/provisión & distribuciónAsunto(s)
Infecciones por Coronavirus/epidemiología , Reglamento Sanitario Internacional/normas , Neumonía Viral/epidemiología , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Infecciones por Coronavirus/economía , Salud Global , Humanos , Pandemias/economía , Neumonía Viral/economía , Salud Pública , SARS-CoV-2 , Organización Mundial de la SaludAsunto(s)
Infecciones por Coronavirus/prevención & control , Reglamento Sanitario Internacional , Derecho Internacional , Pandemias/prevención & control , Neumonía Viral/prevención & control , Viaje/legislación & jurisprudencia , COVID-19 , Infecciones por Coronavirus/epidemiología , Salud Global/legislación & jurisprudencia , Humanos , Neumonía Viral/epidemiología , Organización Mundial de la SaludRESUMEN
Global health security and universal health coverage have been frequently considered as "two sides of the same coin". Yet, greater analysis is required as to whether and where these two ideals converge, and what important differences exist. A consequence of ignoring their individual characteristics is to distort global and local health priorities in an effort to streamline policymaking and funding activities. This paper examines the areas of convergence and divergence between global health security and universal health coverage, both conceptually and empirically. We consider analytical concepts of risk and human rights as fundamental to both goals, but also identify differences in priorities between the two ideals. We support the argument that the process of health system strengthening provides the most promising mechanism of benefiting both goals.
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Epidemias , Salud Global , Fiebre Hemorrágica Ebola/epidemiología , Enfermedades Transmisibles Importadas/epidemiología , Enfermedades Transmisibles Importadas/prevención & control , República Democrática del Congo/epidemiología , Vacunas contra el Virus del Ébola/uso terapéutico , Urgencias Médicas , Fiebre Hemorrágica Ebola/prevención & control , Humanos , Organización Mundial de la SaludRESUMEN
This case commentary examines the CJEU's recent decision in C-621/15 W and Others v Sanofi Pasteur MSD SNC [2017] ECR I. This commentary critically examines the decision through the lens of the cultural conflict between law and science. We argue that the CJEU's decision reflects both a distortion of scientific knowledge and an improper indifference to the legitimate methods by which scientific knowledge is generated in the context of vaccines. These judicial approaches may, the authors argue, inadvertently fuel the vaccine scepticism that is growing across the developed world, and in particular in Europe.