As things stand now, there is little hope that a global pandemic treaty can be forged anytime soon, if at all. What the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body overseeing discussions on the pandemic treaty was trying to accomplish was a global agreement that would address some of the serious problems exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. From the very beginning, it seems that almost every issue the treaty negotiations attempted to address pitted poor countries against rich countries. For the Philippines' part, the failure of the current efforts to create a pandemic treaty is a warning that relying on outside help is unrealistic, if not foolhardy. While the government should continue to participate in and support efforts to craft a pandemic treaty, our own contingency plans for managing the next pandemic must be carefully reviewed and strengthened.
