No game of thrones

摘要

Have you heard of the World Health Assembly? Do you have any idea of its purpose or any sense of its effectiveness? Even people who have attended the annual meeting of the 194 member states of the World Health Organization might struggle to answerthe second of those questions. The arena at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, where the assembly is held, is designed for important decisions about international health, such as how to respond to the threat of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus or the prioritisation of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria (pp 8,12). Politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats, technocrats, business people, and interpreters-mostly the rulers in the world of international health and a few of the ruled-gather to network, promote agendas, debate, and lunch in the hope of inching us closerto a healthier world. The World Health Assembly is Game of Thrones with smartphones for swords and no murders in the great hall.