T he Pandemic Agreement, just adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a landmark for global public health. Had such an agreement been in place before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic would have looked very different.

Members of the World Health Organization voted emphatically in favour of a potentially groundbreaking global treaty on improving pandemic preparedness at the World Health Assembly on Monday.

The United States, traditionally the top donor to the UN health agency, was not part of the final stages of pandemic agreement process after the Trump administration announced a pullout from the WHO.