Member states of the World Health Organization forged a draft agreement seeking to strengthen global collaboration on future pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
The draft agreement will be submitted for consideration and formal approval at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May.
Key aspects of the agreement include establishing a knowledge-sharing system; implementing measures for pandemic prevention; developing geographically diverse research capacities; deploying a skilled, trained, and multidisciplinary national and global health emergency workforce; and creating a coordinating financial mechanism and global supply chain and logistics network. The proposal also includes steps that need to be taken to strengthen preparedness, readiness, and health system functions and resilience.
“The nations of the world made history in Geneva today,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ph.D., WHO director-general, said in a statement. “In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground and a shared response to shared threats.”
The proposal confirms that countries have the right to handle public health issues within their own borders. It also specifies that nothing in the draft agreement should be seen as giving the WHO the power to change national laws or policies or to order countries to take specific actions, such as accepting or banning travelers, requiring vaccinations, using specific treatments or tests, or implementing lockdowns.
Source: HealthDay
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