As Member States continue to draft and negotiate an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing, GISAID remarked that 20 years ago, Member States came together to define the GISAID sharing mechanism, with the fundamental commitment to data contributors to protect their interests in the data they share.
GISAID has since not only enabled submitters to retain control over the rights to their data, it has allowed them to monitor how those data are accessed. Data shared through GISAID is therefore accountable to those Member States and their respective laws enshrined in GISAID’s legally binding terms.
GISAID’s robust user registration process not only ensures that contributors’ rights to their genomic data are preserved, but also safeguards against the sharing of falsified data through the GISAID trusted data ecosystem, a critical protection for biosecurity, as the integrity and traceability of pathogen sequences underpin early detection of emerging threats and reliable public health responses. Nonetheless, data shared through GISAID is Findable, publicly Accessible, as well as Interoperable and Reusable.
Arguments on behalf of special interest that conflate user registration and data governance with restrictions on scientific accessibility are wrong. GISAID provides full and open accessibility to all. What it does not do is allow anonymous access to data. This practice not only encourages more data being shared, but prevents fraud by providing a transparent supply chain, legal accountability and guarantee of authenticity.
Amid growing concern that the misuse of artificial intelligence may obscure Member States’ data contributions, and could allow fabricated or manipulated sequences to enter the global data stream undetected, it is particularly timely to reject initiatives that promote anonymous data sharing.
GISAID remains committed to support Member States by providing genuine accountability, consistent with its longstanding commitment to equity, fairness and benefit-sharing.
