Global Treaty Efforts to Fight Future Pandemics Fail, WHO Acknowledges

Global Pandemic Treaty Negotiations Collapse After Two Years of Talks

After two years of intensive negotiations, efforts to craft a global treaty aimed at helping countries fight future pandemics have failed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.

The negotiations, which aimed to strengthen global capacities to respond to future pandemics and outbreaks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, ended without an agreement. The outcomes of the negotiations will now be considered by the upcoming World Health Assembly.

“We need to use the World Health Assembly to re-energize us and finish the job at hand, which is to present the world with a generational pandemic agreement,” said WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The collapse of the treaty has been attributed to vast differences among member countries over issues such as the sharing of information about emerging pathogens and the sharing of technologies to fight them. The latest draft of the treaty proposed that the WHO should receive 20% of the production of pandemic-related products like tests, treatments, and vaccines, a proposal that was met with criticism from some quarters.

Despite the setback, there remains optimism that an agreement on a treaty can still be reached. “When the next pandemic hits, it will not spare us,” said Precious Matsoso, co-chair of WHO’s negotiating board for the treaty.

The failure of the negotiations underscores the challenges faced in addressing global health crises and the pressing need for international cooperation and coordination in the face of future pandemics.