{"id":3502,"date":"2025-04-12T03:04:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T03:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3502"},"modified":"2025-04-12T03:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T03:04:37","slug":"moment-of-reckoning-for-pandemic-agreement-talks-at-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3502","title":{"rendered":"Moment of reckoning for pandemic agreement talks at WHO"},"content":{"rendered":"
Negotiations toward a global agreement on tackling future pandemics came down to the wire Friday, with observers voicing hope that a consensus could be found to seal a landmark deal.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the years-long talks taking place at the World Health Organization headquarters remained unclear, but optimism appeared to be building as the scheduled cutoff approached.<\/p>\n

“There is a high chance that a consensus will be reached in the coming hours,” Michelle Childs, head of policy advocacy at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), an NGO, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Five years after Covid-19 killed millions of people — and with new health threats lurking, from H5N1 bird flu to measles, mpox and Ebola — pressure is rising on world leaders to secure an agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.<\/p>\n

“Having a framework that brings nations together and plans for the next pandemic will save thousands if not millions of lives,” said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.<\/p>\n

But President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the WHO and his large-scale dismantling of US health institutes is a new threat to the global health risk surveillance system, experts say. Adding to the sense of urgency are drastic US cuts to foreign aid, which could exacerbate health emergencies worldwide.<\/p>\n

“It’s now or never,” said Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute.<\/p>\n

In December 2021, WHO member states resolved to seek a deal to prevent and prepare for future pandemics, to avoid mistakes made during Covid.<\/p>\n

Major disputes have slowed negotiations, including on how to share data on dangerous pathogens, and whether the transfer of the technology and know-how to produce vaccines, tests and treatments should be mandatory or voluntary.<\/p>\n

After 13 rounds of discussions, countries have been meeting at the WHO headquarters in Geneva for final negotiations this week, with a Friday night deadline to iron out remaining problems. The aim is to have a text ready for final approval during the WHO’s annual assembly next month.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Negotiations toward a global agreement on tackling future pandemics came down to the wire Friday, with observers voicing hope that a consensus could be found to seal a landmark deal. The outcome of the years-long talks taking place at the World Health Organization headquarters remained unclear, but optimism appeared to be building as the scheduled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}