All political decision makers at all levels (including the
Parliamentary Assembly, the European Union and WHO) need to agree
to improve international emergency preparedness, including through
legislative changes. The Parliamentary Assembly thus recommends
that member States work together with these political decision makers
to:
4.1 make WHO the lead institution
in handling international public-health emergencies, and ensure that
it has the necessary powers and stable financing to effectively
implement and monitor the International Health Regulations and reinforce
its rapid response mechanism;
4.2 ensure effective co-operation, co-ordination and follow-up
between WHO, the European Union, other specialised agencies of the
United Nations, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
and relevant international non-governmental organisations;
4.3 actively participate in the World Health Assembly with
a view to ensuring good governance of WHO, as well as promoting
and monitoring reform efforts, including transparency in the composition
of expert panels;
4.4 build up resilient health-care systems at the national
level, with strategies in place to prevent and handle major public-health
hazards, including early detection, accurate data collection, availability
of diagnostic and treatment tools, and real-time continuous monitoring
to improve results in accordance with international recommendations;
4.5 put in place a financial structure for pandemic risk management
able to disburse sufficient resources to respond to priority needs,
and provide adequate financial support for programmes promoting
public health at local, regional, national and international level;
4.6 promote community engagement and mobilisation as essential
elements of any action plan to deal with international public-health
emergencies;
4.7 develop partnerships between the public and private sectors,
particularly in the areas of communication, information-management
systems, logistics, provision of necessary medical supplies and
mobilisation of health-care workers;
4.8 create and collaborate with international rapid response
medical emergency teams, including specialists in public health,
doctors, nurses and other community health workers, who should be adequately
protected against risks and be specifically trained, ensuring that
they can be safely evacuated if necessary;
4.9 facilitate access to scientific knowledge and information
to all stakeholders in a timely manner, including an open data-sharing
system for epidemiological, genomic, clinical and anthropological evidence,
from academia to the front line;
4.10 promote research and development of medicines, diagnostic
kits and vaccines, in a spirit of solidarity, with adequate research
ready to be tested during an epidemic, with a view to creating fast-track
authorisation procedures and ensuring that any medicines or vaccines
thus developed are accessible and affordable, in particular to vulnerable
groups, and keeping a reasonable stock whilst adhering to strict
security conditions;
4.11 in the case of a public-health emergency created by a
transmissible disease, carefully design and implement any public-health
control measures for disease mitigation (such as quarantining, social distancing,
border controls and travel restrictions) which could impinge on
individual rights and freedoms;
4.12 following a public-health emergency, arrange rehabilitation
and psychological help in order to avoid further discrimination
of survivors or stigmatisation of disabled patients.
