Lawrence O. Gostin

Lawrence O. Gostin is the Linda D. and Timothy J. O'Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown University. He is also the faculty director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, and professor of medicine at Georgetown University. In addition to directing the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law and serving on high-level advisory committees of the WHO, he is the author of Global Health Law (Harvard, 2014), Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California, 2016), and Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future (Harvard, 2021). Gostin is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Smallpox: A Global Health Success
Governance

Smallpox Biosecurity in a New Era of Technology

by Lawrence O. Gostin, Drew Endy, Nahid Bhadelia, Shalini Singaravelu, Lisa Brown

Smallpox could reemerge, but new technology can prepare the world for a future outbreak

Pandemic prevention workers in protective suits cross a street as COVID-19 outbreaks continue.
Governance

Safeguarding the Pandemic Agreement from Disinformation

by Alexandra Finch, Kevin A. Klock, Lawrence O. Gostin, Sam F. Halabi, Sarah Wetter

A sustained disinformation campaign worldwide is undermining the highly anticipated pandemic agreement

A resident and a child look out through gaps in barriers at a closed residential area during COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai, China, on May 10, 2022.
Governance

Human Rights at the Center of the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Eric A. Friedman, Chelsea Clinton, Lawrence O. Gostin

Governments should integrate human rights into their pandemic responses

During a lockdown, a man in a mask, red pants, and a black shirt prays outside a bright orange temple that is closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, on May 30, 2022. in front of a temple
Governance

What Nations Owe Each Other Before the Next Pandemic

by Lawrence O. Gostin, Kevin A. Klock, Sam F. Halabi, Katie Gottschalk, Katherine Ginsbach, Kashish Aneja

A pandemic treaty will need to contain fresh requirements

A blue, purple, and yellow skylight hovers above Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates his re-election during the 75th World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May 24, 2022.
Governance

At Long Last, Member States Agree to Fix the World Health Organization's Financing Problem

by Alexandra Finch, Kevin A. Klock, Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin

Here's what needs to happen next

Ukrainian paramedics take cover in the woods as air raid sirens go off again following an attack on the Yavoriv military base, outside a hospital in Yavoriv, Ukraine, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on March 13, 2022.
Governance

Ukraine: A Turning Point for Attacks on Health

by Leonard S. Rubenstein, Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin

Accountability is overdue for wartime atrocities in Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Gaza, Myanmar, and now Ukraine

People wander through a COVID memorial made of 26,661 white flags at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, on November 20, 2021.
Governance

No Future But A Shared Future

by Lawrence O. Gostin, Kevin A. Klock, Sam F. Halabi, Katie Gottschalk, Katherine Ginsbach

An excerpt from "Legal Tools for Pandemic Preparedness"

The headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18, 2020. The photo shows the WHO HQ. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Governance

Why the WHO?

by Chelsea Clinton, Eric A. Friedman, Lawrence O. Gostin, Devi Sridhar

The World Health Organization is essential to convening scientific experts and the world’s best thinking on COVID-19