Lack of coherence in the Covid-19 response amongst Mercosur, its member states, and the WHO

Abstract

In February 2020, Brazil registered a case of Covid-19, making it the first official one in South America and among the member states of the Southern Common Market. In the following month, the virus had already spread to all regions of the world, with the Covid-19 outbreak characterized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pandemic. The organization called on the entire international community to cooperate in combating the virus and, in the following months, carried out a series of actions and recommendations in order to mobilize the various actors in the international scenery. We aim to understand whether the WHO recommendations have been followed by Mercosur and by its member States domestically. To achieve this, we mapped the main WHO recommendations and a survey of Mercosur actions and manifestations related to the fight against the pandemic, from March 2020 to June 2021. We also present some of the main actions taken in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic by the Mercosur Member States, to check if they followed the WHO recommendations. Based on this reflection, we observed that, although the bloc has sought to follow the WHO general recommendations through joint meetings and declarations in favor of regional combat, domestically the member states of the bloc have adopted measures that contrast with the WHO recommendations, as well as the Mercosur meetings and declarations.

Keywords: Mercosur; World Health Organization; Member States; Covid-19; pandemic.