| Skybird |
05-25-24 06:39 AM |
[Achse des Guten]
Negotiations on WHO pandemic treaty have failed for the time being
Negotiations on an international pandemic treaty in the responsible Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) of the World Health Organization (WHO) came to an end on Friday without an agreement.
This marks the end of the committee's mandate. The negotiations are now to be continued in the World Health Assembly.
The WHO's highest decision-making body established the negotiating body in 2021 to draw up an agreement or other instrument to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response. In particular, the aim was to expand early warning systems, secure their funding and ensure that countries have equal access to protection instruments. The latter in particular met with resistance from rich countries. Another difficulty in the negotiations was widespread disinformation about the planned document.
“Some time ago, I thought I would stand on this table and sing a song while emptying a bottle of champagne over my head,” said Roland Driece, co-chair of the panel. “But of course we're not going to do that today, because we're not where we hoped to be at the beginning of this process.”
WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that great progress had been made. According to official figures and a high number of unreported cases, more than seven million people have died as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The whole world has been taken hostage by Covid, he said. The world is still not prepared for the next pandemic. “We have to keep reminding ourselves that as humans we tend to forget the pain and move past it when it's really not that big anymore,” Tedros said. “Of course we should move on, but we should also always remember the problem that happened and not rest until the solution comes.”
Critics complain that the pandemic treaty would lead to a global “health dictatorship” with more bureaucracy and control and would undermine state sovereignty and place even more power in the hands of unelected and sometimes corrupt elites. Dr. Meryl Nass, a US-based physician and WHO critic, urges caution: “Virtually all the bad things are still there.” She points to the need to remain vigilant.
The resistance of some countries, including the UK, Slovakia and the Netherlands, to the treaty was well known. They feared a loss of their national sovereignty and refused to transfer comprehensive rights to the WHO in the event of a pandemic. In particular, there was no consensus on the question of how vaccines and medicines should be distributed fairly. The pharmaceutical industry lobby may have played a surprising role in the failure. The UK, which is opposed to being dictated to from outside, has already made it clear that it will not sign the treaty under these circumstances.
There is also massive resistance to the WHO in the USA. States such as Louisiana and Florida have passed laws prohibiting their state officials from following WHO guidelines.
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Germany was one of the first countries to wave through the early drafts of the WHO totalitarianism dictate.
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