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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. There are legally binding obligations under the International Health Regulations, including quickly reporting dangerous new outbreaks. But those have been flouted repeatedly.
Government negotiators, advocacy groups, and others have been working inside the U.N. health agency’s HQ in Geneva since April 29th to finalize the world’s first pandemic agreement. The WHO’s 194 member countries asked the body to oversee talks in 2021.
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 “a catastrophic moral failure.”
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. There are legally binding obligations under the International Health Regulations, including quickly reporting dangerous new outbreaks. But those have been flouted repeatedly.
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U.S. senators wrote a letter to the Biden administration last week critical of the draft for focusing on issues like “shredding intellectual property rights” and “supercharging the WHO.” They urged Biden not to sign off. Britain’s Department of Health said it would only agree to an accord if it was “firmly in the U.K. national interest and respects national sovereignty.
