EXPLAINER: The World Well being Group’s pandemic accord
The Covid pandemic was one of many largest public well being crises in fashionable instances. Involved that the world was unprepared for the subsequent pandemic, the World Well being Group, or WHO, started creating a treaty to information international locations in stopping, making ready for and responding to future pandemics.
The settlement remains to be being negotiated. Regardless of this the draft settlement has been the topic of a lot false data. For instance, it’s commonly claimed by its critics that the accord will strip international locations of their sovereignty.
In January 2025, the US introduced its withdrawal from the WHO. Newly elected president Donald Trump cited “the organisation’s mishandling of the Covid pandemic” as one of many essential causes.
On this explainer, we take a look at some information concerning the treaty.
Based in 1948, the WHO is the United Nation’s well being company. It really works with member states – international locations which have signed a partnership settlement with the WHO – to attain the best requirements of public well being.
The World Well being Meeting is the WHO’s decision-making physique. It’s accountable for setting world well being insurance policies, approving budgets, and overseeing the company’s work. Delegates from every member state attend the WHO’s annual assembly to debate and vote on subjects ready by its government board.
The worldwide well being rules, adopted in 1969, required member states to report infectious illnesses detected inside their borders. The rules initially lined six illnesses, and later three – yellow fever, plague and cholera.
The rules have been amended once more in 2005 to incorporate, amongst different updates, “a scope not restricted to any particular illness or method of transmission”.
“The worldwide well being rules deal with public well being emergencies of worldwide concern,” Safura Abdool Karim, a public well being lawyer and adjunct professor at Columbia College’s Mailman College of Public Well being in New York Metropolis, advised Africa Test.
“They’re a device for managing the unfold of illness and minimising disruption to commerce,” she mentioned.
The pandemic settlement, however, is extra about “pathogen sharing, sources for preparedness and the event of medical countermeasures”. This contains, however is just not restricted to:
The accord was prompted by the affect of the Covid pandemic, which deepened financial inequality and burdened public well being techniques.
Well being companies have been pressured to deal with Covid-related points whereas ignoring different equally severe sicknesses, resembling most cancers and coronary heart illness. Entry to wash water, already a worldwide problem, grew to become a good larger difficulty, pretty much as good hygiene practices have been key to avoiding an infection.
The discharge of Covid vaccines additional highlighted the disparities in useful resource availability. The time period vaccine apartheid was extensively used to explain the unequal distribution of vaccines, as high-income international locations continued to regulate the rights to supply and distribute them.
Negotiators stay divided over a number of the treaty’s phrases, resembling a system for pathogen entry and advantages sharing that may see international locations share know-how and knowledge on rising illness threats.
Whereas higher surveillance may help, it additionally has dangers. For instance, when South African scientists found the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and shared their findings, the nation confronted harsh journey restrictions, though the variant was already in different international locations. The South African authorities mentioned this was like punishing South Africa for its skill to rapidly detect new variants.
One other query is how robust the treaty could be in making certain that its phrases have been met. In accordance with the WHO, as soon as a global authorized instrument is in power, it ought to be carried out in “good religion”. The present draft of the amendments reveals that stronger authorized language is being thought of.
“No accord is best than a weak accord,” Abdool Karim advised Africa Test.
Misinformation concerning the treaty has additionally been some extent of competition. The draft doesn’t put the ability of countries within the arms of the WHO, as has been claimed. Quite the opposite, it reaffirms “the precept of sovereignty of States Events in addressing public well being issues”.
Equally false are claims that the treaty will usher within the reign of a “New World Order” with one world authorities accountable to nobody.
“The method to finalise the accord is ongoing,” Mijail Santos Luján, a communications officer on the WHO’s technique, planning and coordination division, advised Africa Test.
Santos Luján mentioned that it was hoped the ultimate draft could be prepared in time for the 78th World Well being Meeting in Could 2025, the place it could be introduced to WHO member states for consideration.
This contradicts false claims that the treaty has been deserted after public backlash.
Progress of the treaty negotiations might be adopted on the WHO’s web site.
