(Geneva) The 194 member countries of the WHO decided on Saturday to extend negotiations on a pandemic prevention agreement which should help avoid serious mistakes made during the COVID-19 health disaster.
Read the letter from the DD Johanne Liu “The saga of the pandemic treaty in three points”
They also adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), a legally binding framework for responding to public health emergencies that had shown its limits during COVID-19.
The amendments introduce the notion of “pandemic emergency” and “more solidarity and equity”, according to a WHO press release.
“Tonight we all won and the world won,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a packed plenary room at UN headquarters in Geneva and to applause.
The World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making body of the WHO meeting for a week in Geneva, “has made concrete commitments to complete negotiations on a global agreement on pandemics within a period of one year at the latest,” underlined the WHO.
It is about giving ourselves time to overcome differences and safeguard what has been achieved after more than two years of tough negotiations.
Trump hypothesis
The African countries wanted to complete the negotiation by the end of the year.
The fear of a re-election in November of Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from the WHO and did not hide his contempt for the organization, looms over the discussions.
But Dr Tedros once again expressed his faith in a successful conclusion to the negotiations, despite the obstacles.
“The historic decisions taken today demonstrate the common desire of Member States to protect their own populations, as well as those around the world, from the shared risk of public health emergencies and future pandemics,” underlined the head of the WHO, adding that “the question is not if there will be a next pandemic but when it will occur”.
He judges that success on the IHR will give impetus to negotiations on a future agreement, which, “once finalized, could help prevent a repeat of the devastation caused” by COVID-19.
Shock
In December 2021, it was the shock of the health catastrophe in which the world was then plunged – which caused millions of deaths, damaged economies and paralyzed health systems – which had prompted WHO member countries to to launch negotiations on a binding agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Despite the achievements and rapprochements during the negotiations, the differences that persist will be difficult to overcome, particularly on the sharing of know-how and rapid access to the means to combat a new health crisis.
In developing countries, memories remain vivid of rich countries hoarding vaccine doses to the detriment of the common good and refusing to share their technologies.
They insist that the deal will be fair or it won’t be.
The RSI was first adopted in 1969 and last updated in 2005.
Pandemic emergency
But COVID-19 exposed the flaws in the system, with countries failing to respond when the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, its highest level of alarm in January 2020.
It was only several weeks later that the head of the WHO created a salutary shock by speaking of a pandemic, allowing public opinion and States to realize the seriousness of the situation.
The negotiators therefore introduced a “pandemic emergency, in order to trigger more effective international collaboration in response to events which risk becoming, or have become, a pandemic”, specifies the WHO press release.
The reformed RSI also promise better access “to medical products and financing”.
Amendments also create structures which should make it possible to better prepare and better apply the regulation in all countries.
“Experience with epidemics and pandemics, from Ebola and Zika to COVID-19 and Mpox, has shown us that we need better public health surveillance, response and preparedness mechanisms around the world” , recalled Ashley Bloomfield, co-chair of the Working Group on Amendments to the IHR.
Not everyone shares the delegates’ enthusiasm.
Hundreds of people came to denounce the WHO – and what they perceive as an attack on the sovereignty of States – in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva this Sunday.