{"id":30490,"date":"2024-05-11T12:12:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T12:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty"},"modified":"2024-05-11T12:24:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T12:24:38","slug":"whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty","title":{"rendered":"WHO’s 194 member countries struggle to draft a pandemic treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. <\/strong><\/span>Government negotiators, advocacy groups and others have been working inside the U.N. health agency’s HQ in Geneva since April 29th to finalise the world\u2019s first pandemic agreement.<\/b><\/p>\n

The WHO\u2019s 194 member countries asked the body to oversee talks in 2021.<\/p>\n

The negotiations have been arduous but the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a pandemic accord said on May 3rd that the goal was worth the efforts.<\/p>\n

“It’s one of the first and one of the few legally binding instruments worldwide we would have on health and pandemics and what happened in the last couple of years with the Covid crisis, proved that the world was not well prepared to work together in fighting and preventing pandemics from happening, which cost many lives,” Roland Driece told the press.<\/p>\n

“We do everything we can with this instrument to make that situation better than it was before.”<\/p>\n

The accord is attempting to address the gap that occurred between COVID-19 vaccines in rich and poorer countries, which WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said amounted to \u201ca catastrophic moral failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Monkeypox: Avoid repeat of Covid “inequities” in Africa, WHO regional director urges<\/b><\/p>\n

The draft says WHO should get 20% of the production of pandemic-related products like tests, treatments and vaccines and urges countries to disclose their deals with private companies.<\/p>\n

The accord’s aim: guidelines for how the WHO’s 194 member countries might stop future pandemics and better share scarce resources.<\/p>\n

“On difficult issues, I would imagine that countries are trying to find a middle ground on what would work best, to help prepare and prevent (pandemics), I guess it’s a matter of emphasis – whether you emphasize equity or you emphasize prevention, but they’re both important, because from what has happened with Covid, we know that equity was a problem within countries, between countries. So it’s not an either-or,” Dr. Precious Matsoso, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a pandemic accord said.<\/p>\n

“Solo” strategy<\/b><\/p>\n

Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Center at Geneva\u2019s Graduate Institute, pointed to divisions on issues like access to vaccines and financing of ways to improve preparedness.<\/p>\n

“If we can agree on a common set of rules that would both commit countries to share information quickly and commit countries and companies to share technologies quickly. That would be in everybody’s best interest. But we’re not there yet,” she said.<\/p>\n

But experts warn there are virtually no consequences for countries that don\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n

There are legally binding obligations under the International Health Regulations, including quickly reporting dangerous new outbreaks. But those have been flouted repeatedly.<\/p>\n

U.S. senators wrote a letter to the Biden administration last week critical of the draft for focusing on issues like \u201cshredding intellectual property rights\u201d and \u201csupercharging the WHO.” They urged Biden not to sign off.<\/p>\n

Britain’s Department of Health said it would only agree to an accord if it was \u201cfirmly in the U.K. national interest and respects national sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ ALSO: Rwanda: Construction of first mRNA vaccine factory reaches key phase<\/p>\n

And many developing countries say it’s unfair they might be expected to provide virus samples to help develop vaccines and treatments, but then be unable to afford them.<\/p>\n

Some countries appear to be moving on their own to ensure cooperation from others in the next pandemic.<\/p>\n

Last month, US President Joe Biden\u2019s administration said it would help 50 countries respond to new outbreaks and prevent global spread, giving the country leverage should it need critical information or materials in the future.<\/p>\n

The ninth and final round of talks is scheduled to end Friday (May 10).<\/p>\n

If the negotiators reach a draft, it will be a critical milestone ahead of the 77th World Health Assembly, starting May 27, at which Member States are scheduled to consider the proposed text of the world\u2019s first pandemic agreement for adoption.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Eritrea<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. Government negotiators, advocacy groups and others have been working inside the U.N. health agency’s HQ in Geneva since April 29th to finalise the world\u2019s first pandemic agreement. The WHO\u2019s 194 member countries asked the body to oversee talks in 2021. The negotiations have been arduous but the co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[242,243,233,328,929,376,300],"class_list":["post-30490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eritrea","tag-eritrea","tag-pandemic","tag-switzerland","tag-vaccine","tag-who"],"yoast_head":"\nWHO's 194 member countries struggle to draft a pandemic treaty - Eritrea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Government negotiators, advocacy groups and others have been working inside the U.N. health agency's HQ in Geneva sin ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHO's 194 member countries struggle to draft a pandemic treaty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Government negotiators, advocacy groups and others have been working inside the U.N. health agency's HQ in Geneva sin ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eritrea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-11T12:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-11T12:24:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2024\/05\/sm_1715413912.410091.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"WHO’s 194 member countries struggle to draft a pandemic treaty\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-11T12:12:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-11T12:24:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\"},\"wordCount\":671,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2024\/05\/sm_1715413912.410091.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eritrea\",\"Eritrea\",\"pandemic\",\"Switzerland\",\"vaccine\",\"WHO\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/whos-194-member-countries-struggle-to-draft-a-pandemic-treaty\",\"name\":\"WHO's 194 member countries struggle to draft a pandemic treaty - 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