LSTM’s Director, Professor David Lalloo, has joined other sector leaders criticising misinformation levelled at the World Health Organization (WHO) in relation to the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty.
A letter, written jointly with the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and other leaders from public health research intensive universities, defends the WHO and the proposed treaty. It highlights the importance of the WHO’s role in global health and pandemic preparedness and the imperative of UK support for unified multinational approaches to facing the next global pandemic.
Professor David Lalloo said: “We cannot allow a campaign of misinformation to stall the progress of an agreement that ultimately sets out to protect us all. The pandemic treaty contains learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, which in no way threaten the sovereignty of any of those nations that sign up to it. Diseases do not recognise borders, so it is vital that our response to them doesn’t. As an international community of health leaders, we need the tools to ensure that we can fight the next pandemic together, protecting both the world’s poorest communities and the population of the UK.”
Read: 'Open letter to UK politicians on the WHO and the pandemic agreement'.