A WHO delegate takes part in voting in Geneva on the Pandemic Agreement.
Photo courtesy World Health Organization
A landmark new agreement adopted by world health leaders in Geneva this spring is aimed at keeping the world safer from the destructive impacts of global pandemics.
Following three years and about a dozen formal negotiations held around the world, members of the World Health Assembly endorsed a legally binding accord to bring about better global coordination, collaboration and surveillance around pandemic preparedness, prevention and response.
The World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement, adopted May 20, includes strategies for equitable access to vaccines and treatments that may be needed during pandemics and ways to increase vaccine uptake during a crisis. The agreement grew out of the lessons learned from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 7 million people globally since March 2020, including 1.2 million people in the U.S.
Public health officials praised the new agreement as proof that nations can work together for the global good.
“The agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, WHO director-general said in a news release. “It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats.”
Next steps on the WHO Pandemic Agreement include negotiations on a new Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System. The system will enable member countries to share clinical samples of pathogens and genetic sequences with WHO labs and system databases, which will aid prevention and preparedness.
As part of the system, high-income countries will donate or sell 20% of vaccines made in their respective country to WHO for distribution to middle- and low-income nations to broaden preparedness and response. Negotiations for the new system will be held at the 2026 World Health Assembly meeting.
“Now that the agreement has been brought to life, we must all act with the same urgency to implement its critical elements, including systems to ensure equitable access to life-saving, pandemic-related health products,” Teodoro Herbosa, MD, secretary of the Philippines Department of Health and president of World Health Assembly 2025, said in a news release.
One hundred and twenty countries voted in favor of the accord, including China. None voted against it, though 11 countries abstained, including Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia and Iran. Notably absent from the was the US. In January, the Trump administration began the process to withdraw the U.S. from WHO. While still a part of the organization, the U.S. did not send a delegation to the Geneva talks.
With U.S. withdrawal, the biggest financial contributor to the organization will be China, which sent about 180 delegates to the Geneva meeting.
For more, visit www.who.int.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
