2024-03-29T12:31:15+00:00
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/ Agence France-Presse reported on Friday that the member states of the World Health Organization failed to reach an international agreement on confronting global epidemics better in the future, after negotiations that lasted for more than two years, indicating that the discussions will be resumed again in Next May.
The French agency stated that 194 countries met yesterday, Thursday, at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, and decided to prepare a binding text to avoid repeating the fatal and costly mistakes committed during the disastrous management of the Covid-19 pandemic, which revealed the extent of the world’s ill-preparedness to confront a crisis of this magnitude.
The ninth and final round of these negotiations began on March 18, and ended yesterday, Thursday, without reaching a final text.
“You are not far from reaching an agreement,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as the negotiations were nearing a conclusion.
He added, “I am still optimistic and hope that you will achieve this,” recalling that “the agreement is a tool that saves lives, not just a piece of paper.”
He urged countries to return to work to reach a final agreement by the end of next May.
Negotiations began in February 2022 with the goal of the organization’s member states formally adopting the text during the next World Health Assembly on May 27 in Geneva.
But two years after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and while the shocks it left behind have begun to fade, major points of contention remain.
Discussions are becoming more difficult as WHO member states are accustomed to reaching consensus agreements by finding common ground, a procedure that usually takes years.
But there is still hope for reaching an agreement, and countries must decide whether to extend the negotiations between April 29 and May 10.
The intergovernmental negotiating body leading the discussions will draft a new text by April 18 and will work to complete the discussions by May 5.
The number of pages of the current draft has increased from 30 to about 100 pages, with the proposed amendments. Some participants want the Commission to reduce the number of pages to 20.
“It is simply too long,” a Western diplomat said. “It is too detailed and too broad. It is impossible to agree on 30 pages with this level of uncertainty in such a short time.”
The groups working on the project warned that pressure to reach an agreement could lead to a watered-down text that would hardly contribute to making the world safer than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.
K.M. said: Gopakumar, senior researcher at Third World Network, told Agence France-Presse that the new text will likely be shorter and could be completed at a later time.
“They moved from a complete treaty to a condensed document,” he explained from the headquarters of the World Health Organization.
He continued, “This is just a face-saving act at the moment because they want to complete everything by next May.”
Key topics that continue to be discussed include access to emerging pathogens, better prevention and surveillance of epidemics, reliable financing and technology transfer to the poorest countries.
European countries want to invest more money in prevention, while African countries, which have been neglected during the Covid pandemic, are demanding qualifications and funding as well as proper access to tests, vaccines and treatments.
As for the United States, it emphasizes ensuring transparency and rapid sharing of data when any unknown disease emerges.
Experts believe that China was too late in December 2019 in sharing information about Covid-19, and after that developments accelerated and the situation got out of control.
Failure or success in confronting the next pandemic will depend in large part on the ability of the pharmaceutical industry to provide the necessary vaccines, tests, and treatments, especially the manner in which they will be distributed.
Ghebreyesus warned this week that without an agreement, “we will see the same inequality, the same lack of coordination, the same avoidable loss of life, and the same social, economic and political turmoil that occurred during Covid-19.”