Health

WHO Agrees To ‘Legally Binding’ Globally-Led Response For Future Pandemics

(Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
Font Size:

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed Thursday to develop a “legally-binding” agreement on a globally-led response for future pandemics.

The agreement came during the second meeting of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) this week in Geneva, Switzerland. Member states agreed through “consensus” to develop the legally-binding international pandemic agreement by May 2024.

Global health authorities have complained that the world’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was too fragmented and piecemeal to be effective. Chief among the concerns has been that not enough resources were shared with the developing world from richer countries, namely vaccines and personal protective equipment.

“The importance of a legally binding instrument cannot be overstated: it will be our collective legacy for future generations,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

The WHO made sure to emphasize in a press release that individual countries entering into the agreement will maintain their sovereignty to make decisions: “As with all international instruments, any new agreement, if and when agreed by Member States, is drafted and negotiated by governments themselves, who will take any action in line with their sovereignty.”

The United States reportedly wanted to keep article 21 of the INB agreement in place, which limits the legally binding aspects of the partnership to just a few areas. (RELATED: WHO To Rename Monkeypox After Allegations Name Is Racist)

Thursday’s statement makes no mention of the Chinese Communist Party, which severely hampered the global coronavirus response in late 2019 and early 2020 by concealing information from the rest of the world, including the WHO.