Governing and Measuring Health Security: The Global Push for Pandemic Preparedness Indicators

Area of Science:

• Global Health Security
• International Relations
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• A global emphasis exists on developing reliable pandemic preparedness indicators, driven by international policy, the World Health Organization (WHO), NGOs, and private foundations.
• These actors seek control over data collection, analysis, and promotion of preparedness indicators.
• Governments aim to influence their assessments, using performance to attract attention or deflect blame.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the dual aims behind the push for pandemic preparedness indicators: national risk repulsion and reduced global harm via transnational governance.
• To critically examine the development and authority claims of indicators from the WHO and the Global Health Security Index.
• To highlight the importance of understanding indicator composition, especially with the inclusion of social and governance metrics.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of indicator development by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Health Security Index.
• Examination of claims to authority based on standards of transparency, veracity, and accountability.
• Review of the evolving landscape of data collection and policy integration for pandemic preparedness.

Main Results:

• The push for pandemic preparedness indicators serves both national interests in disease containment and broader goals of global health governance.
• The authority and reliability of indicators from the WHO and Global Health Security Index vary when assessed against transparency, veracity, and accountability.
• There is a significant trend towards incorporating social and governance metrics into preparedness indicators.

Conclusions:

• Understanding the composition and underlying aims of pandemic preparedness indicators is vital for accurate global health policy.
• The drive to include social and governance metrics necessitates careful scrutiny of data collection and assessment methods.
• Effective global pandemic response relies on transparent, verifiable, and accountable preparedness indicators.