GENEVA — The World Health Organization begins its annual meeting on Monday with government ministers and other key envoys, hoping to bolster global preparedness for the next pandemic in the devastating wake of COVID-19.
But the most ambitious project, the adoption of a pandemic “treaty”, has been shelved for now, after two and a half years of work failed to produce a project that countries could unite by Friday, as initially expected.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists this is not a “failure” and that the World Health Assembly this week can still chart the way forward.
When diplomats, health authorities and activists were still trying to draft a draft treaty, he predicted that the assembly could be one of the most significant in the WHO’s 76-year history. No more.
WHO officials and others have been eager to capitalize on the worrying dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic, with the risk that the more it fades into history, the less the public – and policymakers – will be interested in preparing. up for a future pandemic.
The basic premise is that pathogens that do not respect national borders require a united response from all countries. But decision-makers have struggled to balance the national interest with the call from WHO officials to think more broadly in the interests of humanity and equity.
So health ministers will now have to take on the work and try to bridge deep differences, including how the world can share information about emerging pathogens and scarce resources like vaccines and masks when demand soars.
The meeting of the UN health agency’s 194 member states begins on Monday with speeches from Tedros and video comments from high-level participants including International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The envoys will discuss global health concerns, including the consequences of wars in places such as the Middle East, Sudan and Ukraine.
Rather than a pandemic treaty, the best chance now to strengthen the international health architecture to combat these cross-border outbreaks is through amendments to the nearly two-decade-old International Health Regulations that countries have agreed to “in principle.” Tedros said last week.
These regulations focus on helping countries detect and respond to health emergencies.
For example, envoys to the assembly could establish the concept of “pandemic emergency” to develop and refine the complicated category of Public Health Emergency of International Concern, which is currently the WHO’s highest alert level for dangerous epidemics.
This term could help inform the public at a time when, as with COVID-19, confusion and uncertainty are widespread.
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