After the COVID-19 pandemic triggered previously unthinkable lockdowns, disrupted economies and killed millions of people, leaders at the World Health Organization and around the world pledged to do more in the future. Years later, countries are still struggling to scale up an agreed-upon plan for how the world will respond to the next global outbreak.
Friday concluded the ninth and final circular of talks involving governments, defense teams and others to finalize a “pandemic treaty. “The draft agreement is to expand rules on how the WHO’s 194 member countries can prevent pandemics in the long term and a higher percentage. their scarce resources. But experts warn that there will be virtually no consequences for countries that comply.
WHO countries have asked the UN fitness company to oversee negotiations for a pandemic deal in 2021. Envoys have worked long hours in recent weeks to prepare a draft ahead of a self-imposed deadline later this month: ratification of the agreement at the WHO’s annual meeting. But deep divisions could derail it.
Republican U. S. senators last week wrote a letter to Biden’s leadership criticizing the bill for focusing on issues such as “the destruction of intellectual asset rights” and the “overfeeding of the WHO. “They suggested President Biden sign it.
The U. K. Department of Health said it would only accept a deal if it was “firmly in the national interest of the U. K. and respected national sovereignty. “
And many emerging countries feel it’s unfair that they can be expected to provide virus samples to help expand vaccines and treatments, but then can’t afford them.
“This pandemic treaty is a very noble approach, but it takes into account political realities,” said Sara Davies, a professor of foreign affairs at Griffith University in Australia.
For example, the agreement seeks to close the gap that has occurred between COVID-19 vaccines in poorer countries and which, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, amounts to “a catastrophic ethical failure. “
The draft states that the WHO will offload 20% of production of pandemic-related products, such as tests, remedies and vaccines, and urges countries to disclose their agreements with private companies.
“There’s no mechanism within the WHO that makes life really complicated for countries that don’t act in accordance with the treaty,” Davies said.
Adam Kamradt-Scott, a global fitness expert at Harvard University, said that, like global climate agreements, the draft pandemic treaty would provide at least a new forum for countries to try to be held accountable, where governments will have to take care of themselves. actions they have taken.
The pandemic treaty “is not about telling a country’s government what it can and cannot do,” said Roland Driece, co-chair of the WHO’s negotiating board.
There are legally binding obligations under the International Health Regulations, as well as the need to promptly report new dangerous outbreaks. But those principles have been repeatedly violated, including Ebola outbreaks in African countries and in China at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Centre for Global Health at the Geneva Institute of Graduate Studies, said it was critical to determine the expected role of the WHO in a pandemic and how outbreaks can be stopped before they spread globally.
“If we don’t take advantage of this last window of opportunity . . . We will be as vulnerable as we were in 2019,” he warned.
Some countries seem to be acting alone to ensure the cooperation of others in the next pandemic.
Last month, the Biden administration said 50 countries would respond to new outbreaks and prevent global spread, giving the country leverage if it needed critical data or materials in the future.
Yuanqiong Hu, legal and policy adviser at Médecins Sans Frontières, said it was unclear what might happen in the next pandemic, but hoped that drawing attention to some of the glaring mistakes that have emerged in the context of COVID-19 could help. .
“We will have to rely mostly on countries to do better,” he said. “It’s concerning. “
Associated Press Cheng reported from London and Keaten from Geneva.
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