The covid-19 and mpox PHEICs have ended—the meaning of this is unclear

In the past week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), determined that the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for covid-19 was over.1 This was swiftly followed by his announcement that the PHEIC for mpox was also over. These have been met with mixed reaction, with some welcoming the end of covid-19 and in turn mpox, and some fearing that an end of the state of emergency would mean an end to remaining public health interventions while the pathogens continue to circulate and infect people. Actually, the meaning of these PHEICs ending is much less clear.Under Article 12 of the International Health Regulations (IHR) PHEICs are determined by the director-general on advice of an emergency committee of technical experts, who assess whether an outbreak meets three predefined criteria: that it is an extraordinary event; that constitutes a public health risk to other states through…
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