RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil is co-sponsor with 100 other countries of a decision closed on Monday (29) to negotiate an international mechanism to prevent future outbreaks from becoming pandemics again such as the Covid-19.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) special assembly is expected to approve by Wednesday (1) that negotiations begin next year. From there, disagreements are likely to grow over format, devices, rights, and obligations during an outbreak.
“Omicron (the new Covid-19 variant) demonstrates why the world needs a new agreement on pandemics: our current system discourages countries from warning others about threats that will inevitably land on their land,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The initiative for an international agreement to prevent pandemics was pushed by the European Union (EU) to respond to public opinion in the wake of the damage caused by Covid-19 and is reinforced now with the new variant that is scaring the world.
Developing countries have joined but seem to feel that they will enter the negotiation “half-blind”. They know some things that developed countries want, like the guarantee of sharing biological samples.
On the other hand, some negotiators report that when they ask about benefits sharing, vaccine sharing, etc., they don’t precisely get answers or are even seen as bad guys.
Handing over pathogens may mean that a recipient country can quickly develop a vaccine. A developing-country negotiator will want to sell at three times the price to the country supplying that sample. For Tedros, “global health security is too important to be left to chance, or the goodwill, or to changing geopolitical currents, or to the vested interests of companies and shareholders.”
Thus, he believes that the best way to deal with the issue is with a legally binding agreement between nations, therefore not voluntary.
Another issue on the agenda at the W.HO. is about the creation of a monetary fund for global health security. The idea is for countries to pay more into the W.H.O. Currently, 80% of the organization’s budget comes from contributions from rich countries for the programs they determine, while there is a lack of money for other activities.
Now, the developed countries want to continue directing their resources to specific activities, but with everyone else paying.