The World Hopes to Enact a Pandemic Treaty by May 2024. Will it Succeed?

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders proposed a bold idea. They envisioned a pandemic treaty that would obligate countries to work together to prevent future health emergencies. The World Health Assembly set the deadline for such an accord: May 2024. But negotiations have seized up around a series of issues like how would such a treaty be enforced and how would it be financed.

One solution is to fund companies' research and development with taxpayer dollars. In exchange, they would then share any resulting technology freely. The idea is that in the event of a public health emergency, "human life would override the profit intent." Read the story from NPR here.