More than fifty former heads of state and government, along with dozens of other prominent figures, have issued an official and urgent call to member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) to reach an international agreement to prevent the emergence of new pandemics in the future. Discussions are set to take place this week and next in Geneva to find common ground on a joint text ahead of the deadline in May 2024. However, after several negotiation sessions, significant points of disagreement remain among WHO member countries.
Therefore, the signatories of the call expressed concern that the text may not be ready for adoption during the World Health Assembly scheduled for next May by Lake Geneva. Nevertheless, "reaching an agreement on pandemics is essential to protect our collective future," wrote the signatories, led by Gordon Brown and Helen Clark, who previously governed the UK and New Zealand, respectively. The message continued, "Only a strong global pact against pandemics can protect future generations from a recurrence of the COVID-19 crisis, which resulted in millions of deaths and caused widespread social and economic devastation, particularly due to inadequate international cooperation."
The signatories believe that a new pandemic will occur sooner or later, warning that "there is no excuse for not being prepared." They emphasized that it is "essential to develop an effective, multi-sectoral, and multi-stakeholder approach to pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response." The idea for an international agreement on this issue was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement currently under negotiation aims to ensure better global preparedness and a more equitable response to future epidemics, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic quickly exposed the limits of global solidarity with the initial rollout of vaccines against the coronavirus in insufficient quantities.
