Geneva, Dec. 1 (BNA): The head of the World Health Organization praised the major step taken by member states on Wednesday to launch work toward an international agreement to help prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak. 19.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the unanimous decision during a special session of members of the UN health agency was “a cause for celebration”.
Work begins to create an “intergovernmental negotiating body” to draft an agreement on pandemics that will take several years to finalize, if ever, according to the AP.
“Of course, we still have a long way to go. There are still differences of opinion about what a new agreement could or should contain,” he said.
The consensus statement falls short of calls from EU countries and many others seeking to agree that the end goal of the effort will be to craft a “legally binding” agreement or treaty, hoping to give it strength and now act with public interest. The epidemic is still high.
But diplomats said the United States, Brazil and a handful of other countries were reticent, with US officials saying the substance of any future agreement is a top priority for now, giving it a name like an agreement or treaty.
Tedros spoke because the emergence of the new omicron variant captured worldwide attention, unsettling stock markets and causing many countries to restrict travel.
The special session, organized months earlier in response to COVID-19, was only the second since the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. An international “tool” on epidemics aims to resemble a similar international agreement on tobacco control.
Under the scheduled timetable, the WHO said, the intergovernmental negotiating body is expected to hold its first meeting by March to discuss “modes of work and timetables”.
A second meeting by August will discuss efforts to develop a working draft. Talks are expected to continue until a report is submitted to the WHO Assembly in 2024.
Several countries and the UN health agency are trying to rein in disjointed national responses, including intermittent travel bans and other restrictive measures; Overcoming political differences. and improved transparency by states – following criticism of China’s early handling of the outbreak when it first emerged nearly two years ago.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for measures such as increased sharing of vaccine doses by rich countries with large stockpiles of vaccines with poor countries unable to vaccinate enough of their people – a call that has been largely unanswered.
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