After a good three years of negotiations and recently night -time discussions in Geneva, the negotiators approved a contract text on Wednesday night. He is to be adopted in Geneva at the annual meeting of the 194 members of the World Health Organization (WHO) in May.
“After more than three years of intensive negotiations, the WHO member states have made a big step forward in their efforts to make the world safer from pandemics,” said the organization. “The nations of the world wrote history in Geneva today,” said WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The members have proven that “the nations in our split world can still work together”.
- Read more: Lessons from the corona crisis: First agreement on pandemic agreements
The legally binding pact is intended to better prepare the world for the fight against new pathogens. It is considered a response to Corona pandemic, which cost the lives of people from 2020 to 2022 million. The agreement is also considered an important victory for the global health organization. Her threatening drastic cuts should make the US government available to Donald Trump less money.
Without the USA
The United States has no longer participated in the negotiations since the change of government in Washington. Trump ordered the resignation from the WHO, which will be effective in January 2026. The contract now negotiated applies anyway only to countries whose parliaments have ratified it. Even after entry into force, the WHO cannot order lockdowns, travel restrictions or vaccinations. 60 ratifications are necessary, which could take a few years.
“I have no doubt that the world will be much better prepared for another pandemic after ratification and that it will survive better and more fairly,” said Gian-Luca Burci, professor at the Center for Global Health at the Geneva University Graduate Institute, the German Press Agency. What the contract regulates:
Prevention
Countries undertake to strengthen their health systems and the monitoring of the animal kingdom in such a way that outbursts of illness are quickly discovered and nipped in the bud if possible. It was important to the Europeans that antibiotic resistance would also be combated.
Supply chains
What is used and delivered in the event of a pandemic should be equally accessible to all countries. Health personnel should be cared for first. In corona pandemic, countries had obtained masks or vaccines and some of them prevented export. While the third vaccination was already administered in rich states, people in poor countries were still waiting for the first syringe.
Research and Development
Important information such as the DNA sequence about pathogens should be freely replaced so that medication and vaccines can be developed. In return, Pharmaceutical companies of the WHO are supposed to cede ten percent of their production as a donation to distribute in poorer countries (PABS system). Further production shares should at least be made available at a low price. The modalities still have to be negotiated and should be in an appendix to the contract.
Technology transfer
Companies should share their know-how to produce medication and vaccines, also to enable productions in other countries. It was important to the European supporters that the participation of the companies remains voluntary.
The text has many spongy formulations. Obligations apply, for example, “depending on national laws”, there are restrictions such as “in mutual agreement”. “The contract is a start and not an end,” says Burci. With such an agreement, a dynamic develops, such as the WHO contract for tobacco control came into force in the 2005. There is also pressure because countries have to show every few years at Contract State Conferences.
Signal for solidarity
The medical director of the aid organization doctors without borders, Maria Guevara, praised the contract despite compromises and partly vague language. It regards it as a “strong signal of global solidarity”.
Source: Nachrichten
