YSPH EMD Seminar Series: “Law for Equitable and Evidence-Based Pandemic Preparedness and Response”

The current pandemic has demonstrated how our assessments of pandemic preparedness underestimated the importance of law, governance, and evidence-based leadership in protecting people’ health. International laws for pandemic preparedness focused on technical metrics, while the norms of international cooperation were left to languish resulting in delayed national responses, reliance on travel bans, and vaccine nationalism. As we continue to respond to COVID-19 we must also prepare for the next pandemic: can reforms to international law help stop outbreaks from becoming pandemics?