So for me, there was a solidarity, a recognition that this is really, really difficult. I'm only now realizing how difficult it was five years on. And people came together in the first Trump administration. That technical exchange did not stop. So even though there was an intent to withdraw, that technical exchange continued.
What's happening now is very, very different. I find it hard to understand why this is happening. We anticipated some fiscal shrinking. What we didn't anticipate, what I didn't anticipate was the abrupt nature in which it [was] stopped. And it's very difficult for me to understand as a person why this is happening, because people are dying as a result of this. Personally I find it very difficult. It's a very different type of stress for me. So it's been very challenging.
Do you see any kind of silver lining to this crisis? That a better global health system might come out of it?
I think we will get through this and be more efficient. But the problem I have with that type of question and that type of thinking, even saying it out loud, are the people that are impacted right now, they're not going to make it through. We do need innovative voices. We need a new approach to this. But that's not going to help the people who are suffering right now. And I think that's what is so uncomfortable and unnecessary. And I'm really struggling and many are really struggling with what's happening globally.
Let's talk a bit about the pandemic accord that WHO member states have spent the past few years drafting. Why is it so important?
It's incredibly important right now, especially where many countries are retreating inward.
This is really showing that we live in an interconnected world and it's in the collective interests of all countries to work together for pandemic preparedness. Pathogens don't respect borders. They don't care about your political affiliation, the color of your skin, how much money you have in the bank. They look for any opportunity they can. We need to ensure that we are in the best possible situation in terms of our capacities, in terms of our readiness for when this does happen again. Because unfortunately, it will happen again.
The legacy of COVID cannot only be death and devastation. It has to be what was built.
So what is being built? What's in the accord?
There's quite a lot of detail in the accord itself. There's detail in there about what it means to prevent pandemics, looking at either the spillover of pathogens between animals, transmission between animals and humans -- Thinking beyond the last pandemic of a coronavirus and thinking forward of what could that next pathogen actually be? Also looking at bio risk management in laboratories.
It also looks at what it actually means to develop medical countermeasures like diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, and to ensure equity and fairness of the distribution of those products, based on risk and need.
It's more of a promise. It's more than a handshake. It's actually concretely writing down what needs to be done.
If the world had this accord before the COVID-19 pandemic, would it have played out differently?
I think there were many elements that could have unfolded differently. We could have been in a situation where we would have negotiated access, early access to these vaccines, these diagnostics and these therapeutics when they were available. And instead of the high-income countries having access to these and vaccinating as many people as they could -- of course that's up to governments to protect their people -- what we would have liked to have seen was vaccinating at-risk people in every country rather than vaccinating everyone in a handful of countries. And that's what happened during COVID.