Safeguarding the Pandemic Agreement and Dark Tobacco

January 16, 2025

Better health begins with ideas

Editors' Note

As the pandemic agreement negotiations inch closer to a resolution ahead of the World Health Assembly, professors and scholars from the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law dispel claims from a worldwide disinformation campaign that seeks to undermine the treaty.

Next, the University of Bath's Benoît Gomis kicks off a conversation on tobacco control by unpacking how regulatory agencies are cracking down on Big Tobacco companies that seek to undermine public health measures through covert activities.

Continuing this theme, Chief Executive Officer of the Korea Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education Sungkyu Lee outlines how global efforts to combat tobacco use need to account for new technologies.

CFR's Allison Krugman then highlights data from a new report from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition that found attacks on health-care workers doubled from 2022 to 2023.

Wrapping up the week, Ginkgo Bioworks' Ryan Morhard explains how the evolution of cybersecurity across the digital ecosystem offers a roadmap for the bioeconomy as the biotechnology field transitions from a fragmented landscape of research and development (R&D) to more integrated and standardized platforms.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor 

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