Health
No agreement on global pandemic treaty
Negotiations on a global pandemic agreement have ended without consensus. Photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa/Symbol image
Negotiations lasted two years. The pact was intended to prepare the world for the next pandemic and prevent chaos like that of the Corona years. The agreement failed, among other things, because of money.
International negotiations on a pandemic agreement of the World Health Organization (WHO) have ended after two years without consensus. The 194 member states of the UN organization had set themselves the goal of adopting the pact next week in Geneva at the WHO’s annual meeting.
The agreement was intended to prevent global chaos like the Prevent the corona pandemic and ensure that all countries are supplied with all necessary protective materials, medicines and vaccines in a timely manner.
However, diplomats from various countries and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed optimism that work on the agreement could continue in the future. The co-chair of the negotiating committee, the Dutchman Roland Driece, expressed the hope that an agreement would be reached “in the coming years”. “This is not a failure,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the delegates in Geneva. “You have really achieved a lot, you have come a long way.” Now it is time to learn lessons from the negotiations so far and move on.
Disagreement, among other things, on the subject of financing
Aid organizations and poorer countries fear that the treaty will not ensure that the most vulnerable are cared for. In richer countries, there was resistance from the pharmaceutical industry and from critics who falsely claimed that the WHO wanted to decide on lockdowns or compulsory vaccination in the event of a pandemic. Disagreement existed on issues such as pandemic prevention and financing.
One point of controversy was the extent to which medicines or vaccines should be made available to poorer countries free of charge or at low prices. According to WHO estimates, up to 20 million people have died in the course of the corona pandemic and almost everyone in the world has been affected by the effects of the virus in some way, said Tedros. “The world still needs a pandemic agreement and the world must be prepared,” he stressed.