Pandemic Treaty Falters, Stand Off Between Rich and Poor
The much-touted global pandemic accord was dealt a severe blow this week as countries could not agree on over half of the thirty-four articles of the draft treaty in time for the World Health Assembly this week. From the outset, the pandemic treaty was intended as a way to channel money for global health infrastructure and establish technology transfer mechanisms for poor countries. While developing countries were interested in the pandemic treaty and the money attached, rich Western countries were always more interested in bulking up the power of the World Health Organization (WHO) through changes to the already existing agreement called the International Health Regulations. The proposed U.S. changes enhance the power of the Director-General of the WHO to declare and manage international health emergencies and give the organization a greater say in how countries design their health systems overall. The changes were supposed to be agreed in tandem with the pandemic accord this week. Now, the Biden administration and European powers want to adopt the changes to the regulations tomorrow without making any specific promises to provide global health assistance in the now-stalled pandemic treaty. The U.S. and Europeans are asking poor countries to trust them that some kind of compromise can be reached eventually. The African Group is insisting that the already agreed articles of the pandemic treaty must be preserved and that a path to adopt a pandemic treaty and concrete commitments to provide global health assistance were necessary before any U.S.-backed changes to International Health Regulations could be adopted. The U.S. insists that the health regulations go ahead now.
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