“We have to do more,” he said on the International Day for Epidemic Preparedness (December 27). This is to be regulated with a global pandemic treaty, on the initiative of EU Council President Charles Michel. Negotiations on this are ongoing at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva and are now entering the hot phase.
Bild: JURE MAKOVEC (AFP)
The 30-page draft is highly controversial. The treaty is scheduled to be adopted at the World Health Assembly (May 27 to June 1, 2024). The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is monitoring the negotiations in Geneva, believes it is very unlikely that all problems can be resolved by then.
“Access to diagnostics, treatment and vaccines”
Referring to the lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, Guterres said: “We must not allow the moral and medical catastrophe of rich countries to hoard and control pandemic supplies. We must ensure that everyone has access to diagnostics, have treatment and vaccines.”
In light of the 2020 Corona pandemic, the UN Assembly has designated December 27th as “Epidemic Preparedness Day”. Local or regional outbreaks of an infectious disease are epidemics; if they spread worldwide, they are referred to as pandemics.
“Pharmaceutical companies should make prices transparent”
The pandemic treaty covers, among other things, how information regarding new pathogens is quickly shared, who produces vaccines and medicines where, and how they are distributed. Even if the treaty is adopted at the WHO meeting, it would only come into force if enough countries ratified it and would only be valid in these countries.
Rich countries criticize, for example, the fact that they disclose details regarding the funding of pandemic product research and that pharmaceutical companies should make prices transparent. It is also controversial that in a new pandemic the pharmaceutical industry should waive intellectual property rights to medicines and be obliged to hand over part of their production to the WHO for distribution.
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