a protracted lockdown: the who archives and research on the history of international public health today

The who archives in geneva has been closed to researchers and thepublic since march 11, 2020. the archives hold valuable, vast officialcorrespondences, documents, photographs, and other kinds of dated recordsof the world health organization and related defunct establishmentsdating back to 1907. the closure of the archives became necessaryin the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the general lockdownthat attended it. while normalcy has since returned in virtually everyinstitution and sector across the globe, the closure of the who archiveshas continued unbroken for over 2 years and 4 months with grave implicationsfor research and scholarship on the history of internationalpublic health. this essay is a critique of that protracted closure which isnow clearly unnecessary and unjustifiable. it is also a call for an urgentend to it in the interest of the fundamental right of access to information,and knowledge production.