This open access book is a collection of research papers on COVID-19 by Germán Velásquez from
2020 and early 2021 that help to answer the question: How can an agency like the World Health
Organization (WHO) be given a stronger voice to exercise authority and leadership? The
considerable health economic and social challenges that the world faced at the beginning of
2020 with COVID-19 continued and worsened in many parts of the world in the second-half of 2020
and into 2021. Many of these countries and nations wanted to explore COVID-19 on their own
sometimes without listening to the main international health bodies such as WHO an agency of
the United Nations system with long-standing experience and vast knowledge at the global level
and of which all countries in the world are members. In this single volume the chapters
present the progress of thinking and debate - particularly in relation to drugs and vaccines -
that would enable a response to the COVID-19 pandemic or to subsequent crises that may arise.
Among the topics covered: COVID-19 Vaccines: Between Ethics Health and Economics Medicines and
Intellectual Property: 10 Years of the WHO Global Strategy Re-thinking Global and Local
Manufacturing of Medical Products After COVID-19 Rethinking R&D for Pharmaceutical Products
After the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 Shock Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines and
Vaccines The World Health Organization Reforms in the Time of COVID-19 Vaccines Medicines and
COVID-19: How Can WHO Be Given a Stronger Voice? is essential reading for negotiators from the
194 member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) World Trade Organization (WTO) and
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) staff participating in these negotiations
academics and students of public health medicine health sciences law sociology and
political science and intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations that
follow the issue of access to treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.
