World unprepared for another pandemic as WHO treaty talks push on
Reuters
May 31, 2024 06:00 MYT
May 31, 2024 06:00 MYT
World Health Organization member states gathered in Geneva to work out how to continue negotiations about an accord after missing the month’s deadline. - REUTERS/Filepic
GENEVA: The world is unprepared for another health crisis like COVID-19, a leading global health expert has warned, as countries make a last push to agree a way forward for a pandemic treaty amid fears the political climate for agreement could sour.
AI Brief
- WHO member states met in Geneva to discuss continuing negotiations on a pandemic treaty after missing the May deadline, aiming to better prepare for future health crises.
- A key issue is ensuring low and middle-income countries receive 20% of pandemic-related tests, treatments, and vaccines at no-profit costs or as donations, to prevent the inequities seen during COVID-19.
- There is urgency to finalize the treaty due to upcoming elections that might bring in governments opposed to the treaty, despite WHO assurances that it won't threaten national sovereignty.
World Health Organization member states gathered in Geneva on Friday (May 31) to work out how to continue negotiations about an accord after missing the month’s deadline.
“We only hope that... (in the) next few months, we don't have another pandemic that finds us in a world which is still unprepared for a major crisis,” Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s health minister and a board member of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told Reuters.
A major sticking point in the treaty has been provisions for low and middle-income countries to have access to 20% of tests, treatments and vaccines developed to fight the pandemic, either at no-profit costs or donated.
Ali Pate said the figure was reasonable to avoid the scramble for life-saving products that saw African countries last-in-line during COVID.
While talks on the treaty are likely to continue for several months or even years, a parallel process to update an existing set of rules that govern international disease outbreaks are closer to agreement, sources said, and could be signed off before the end of the WHO’s annual meeting on Saturday.
Other negotiators and observers said there was a sense of urgency in the treaty talks, not least because of concerns that elections in a number of key countries this year could bring in right-leaning governments who fear the treaty could threaten their sovereignty, which the WHO denies and a clause in the document guards against.
“This needs to be done now or else things are only going to get worse with things moving to the right,” said one Western diplomat.