LETTER | What the Independent Pandemic Panel is about

LETTER | In May 2020, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) was formed by the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in response to a World Health Assembly resolution. IPPPR was tasked to review international health responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, identify best practices, and provide recommendations for improvement. IPPPR is co-chaired by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (former President of Liberia and Nobel Laureate) and Helen Clark (former prime minister of New Zealand).

After nine months of research, interviews, and deliberation, the IPPPR published a report titled "Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic" on 12 May 2021. This article discusses three salient recommendations from the report as it relates to Malaysia: voluntary licensing and technology transfer for Covid-19 vaccines; requesting the United Nations (UN) secretary-general to convene the General Assembly (GA) for a new agreement on global health reforms, and to consider our own independent panel to review our pandemic responses.

Firstly, Malaysia should support the IPPPR’s recommendation of voluntary licensing and technology transfer for Covid-19 vaccines. The IPPPR recommends that WHO and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) convene major producers to agree on voluntary licensing and technology transfer agreements. If there is no action within three months (in other words, before mid-August 2021), the IPPPR recommends that a waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights under the WTO Trips agreement should come into force automatically.

This is a strong recommendation, and it follows the Biden administration’s historic support for waiving the IP protections for Covid-19 vaccines in an announcement on May 5. Given the global momentum for patent waivers, Malaysia must strongly support this movement. If more countries, particularly developing countries like Malaysia, were given the patents and technical knowledge to produce vaccines, more people will benefit as we can produce our vaccines for domestic use or export to Asean or even the Islamic world by utilising our halal products infrastructure. This will help to lower the prices of vaccines while ensuring the smooth progress of our National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

Malaysia's strong diplomatic support for this patent waiver can be led by Wisma Putra and the Health Ministry. Our stature in the international arena can lend a voice to other low- and middle-income countries facing the same shortage of vaccines. According to WHO, only 23 countries are producing WHO prequalified vaccines today. This has led to a situation of “vaccine apartheid”, which serves exclusively the interests of powerful and profitable pharmaceutical firms while preventing us the fastest and least dangerous path out of the pandemic. Rich countries have hoarded vaccines, like Canada which has stockpiled vaccines for up to nine times their population. The rest of the world must rely on the goodwill of donors, development assistance, and charities such as the Covax scheme to obtain life-saving health technologies, and this is a moral catastrophe. Waiving patents will truly ensure an effective global vaccination programme by increasing supplies and equity.

Secondly, Malaysia should agree to the IPPPR’s recommendation of requesting the UN secretary-general to convene the GA for a new agreement on global health reforms, including possibly establishing a Global Health Threats Council led by heads of state and governments. The IPPPR also recommends that relevant non-state entities should be included in the council, providing equal regional, gender, and generational representation. The council should be an “inclusive and legitimate voice of authority with the potential to use both accountability procedures and financial resources to enable all levels of preparedness and reaction”, says the IPPPR.

Among the functions of the GHT Council is to guide the distribution of resources according to an ability to pay. Such a Council will benefit Malaysia. As an upper-middle-income country (UMIC), Malaysia is trapped in a no-man’s land. We are too rich to receive international aid, but perhaps not rich enough to be able to afford expensive vaccines, medicines, and equipment outright. The uneven allocation of resources has caused uneven results in the fight against the pandemic among countries around the world. Malaysia should be aligned with other UMICs in striving for equal allotment of resources as our common goal. Delivering this message to the international community emphasizes our country's proposition and global leadership.

Another function of the GHT Council is to hold national governments accountable. One can argue that global health does not exist, and that global health is actually the sum total of the health of all the countries in the world. At the moment, only a political declaration at the General Assembly can provide enough political mandate for a meaningful accountability framework to be established. Such a global accountability framework will ensure that every country is safe as all countries are being held accountable for minimum health standards. Malaysia’s support for global health reforms is necessary to also protect our own health, especially in an interdependent and globalised world.

Finally, the creation of an independent and neutral global panel should inspire Malaysia to have its own independent panel at an appropriate time. This should be led by experienced and credible health professionals and experts in related sectors. By having its own independent panel, Malaysia can examine the lessons from the Covid-19 for future pandemics. This is important because the fury, busy-ness, and panic of fighting a pandemic can reduce our ability to identify important lessons. In a way, an independent panel is similar in principle to a Royal Commission of Inquiry, but it does not need to be so formalised or bureaucratic. The independent panel is not the External Advisory Group that was convened in January 2021 to advise the prime minister, as the independent panel is more retrospective in analysis and prospective in recommendations.

Theoretically, an independent panel for Malaysia can be convened by the Parliamentary Select Committee for Health and deliver a report to Parliament and the public. Such an independent panel can be convened in several months after the pandemic has stabilised or after the vaccination programme has rolled out to a majority of Malaysians. The independent panel could analyse the recommendations of international organizations including the IPPPR’s reports, and determine their suitability for Malaysia. It can identify the blind spots and missed opportunities for Malaysia's pandemic responses so that we can better handle a future pandemic.

Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” We must learn from Covid-19 and prepare for the next pandemic. The results of the independent panel are important to Malaysia, and we should support their report especially in vaccine equity and a new architecture for global health architecture. At the right time, an independent panel for Malaysia will help us prepare for the next pandemic. The crucial ingredients remain, as always, political will and skill.

RICHARD YEOH YU ZHE is an undergraduate student in international affairs management.

DR KHOR SWEE KHENG is a physician specialising in health policies and global health.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.