WHO chief hopes for ‘historic’ pandemic accord

A novel pandemic accord below negotiation must be a “historical settlement” marking a dramatic shift within the advance to global health security after the COVID disaster, the WHO chief acknowledged Sunday.

“We won’t merely stick with it as we did earlier than,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged as he opened the World Neatly being Group’s annual meeting in Geneva.

WHO’s member states fetch begun negotiations in direction of a global settlement aimed to be sure the world is better equipped to terminate or more effectively answer the next time a virus hits.

The system is peaceful within the early stages, nonetheless the aim is for settlement to be reached in time for the next World Neatly being Assembly, in Would possibly well 2024.

“The pandemic accord that member states are now negotiating must be a historical settlement to arrangement a paradigm shift in global health security, recognizing that our fates are interwoven,” Tedros acknowledged before the entirety of the 10-day gathering.

That became furthermore the message from a protracted line of various excessive-level audio system Sunday.

“I’m hoping the hot negotiations on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response terminate in a solid multilateral advance that saves lives,” UN chief Antonio Guterres acknowledged, speaking by video message.

Timor-Leste President Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta within the interim identified that “each and each country, spacious or diminutive, rich or unlucky, struggled to mount an ample response to the pandemic”.

“This reminds us that we must make our rental earlier than the storm, not throughout the storm.”

‘Take into accout the darkness’

The pandemic has wreaked global devastation and officially killed nearly seven million folks, with the ultimate-looking resolve believed to be closer to 20 million.

Tedros earlier this month declared that the COVID disaster now not constitutes a global health emergency.

Nevertheless he wired Sunday that “COVID-19 is peaceful with us, it peaceful kills, it’s peaceful altering and it peaceful demands our attention”.

We would possibly maybe maybe furthermore fetch emerged from “a protracted, shadowy tunnel”, he acknowledged, “nonetheless here is the moment to see within the attend of us and take into accout the darkness of the tunnel, and then … switch ahead within the sunshine of the a ramification of painful classes it has taught us”.

“Chief among those classes is that we are in a position to easiest face shared threats with a shared response.”

If agreed, the pandemic accord will stamp easiest the 2nd legally-binding health treaty since WHO became created 75 years ago.

Tedros highlighted the success of the major one—the Framework Convention on Tobacco Take care of an eye on adopted precisely twenty years ago.

Over that time, he identified, smoking prevalence has dropped by one third globally.

“The WHO FCTC is dwelling proof of the vitality of global agreements to drive a paradigm shift in global health,” he acknowledged, voicing hope a virus accord would possibly maybe maybe furthermore arrangement the same.

“Right here’s the moment for us to jot down a novel chapter in global health history, together.”

© 2023 AFP