“I was privileged to be in Geneva last month for the meeting of the World Health Assembly where the vote on a global pandemic treaty was taken,”writes columnist MICHAEL MOORE.

After three years of pressure from non-government organisations, and intensive negotiations by member states of the World Health Organization (WHO), the world has largely adopted a plan to prepare for the next pandemic.

Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic should still be at the forefront of the minds of those in power.

According to the WHO, there were more than 700 million reported cases of COVID-19 and seven million reported deaths. Better preparation will assist in reducing such casualties in a further pandemic.

This is the purpose of the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement, aka the Pandemic Treaty. I was privileged to be in Geneva last month for the meeting of the World Health Assembly where the vote was taken. And even more privileged to be part of the advocacy work for the Pandemic Treaty through one of the key NGOs – the World Federation of Public Health Associations.

This agreement is only the second international legal agreement negotiated under Article 19 of the WHO constitution that seeks to encourage a co-ordinated approach to protect human health across the world. The first of these was the International Framework on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that was adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2003 with 168 signatories. The US signed, but still has not ratified the FCTC.

The Pandemic Treaty, according to the WHO, outlines “the principles, approaches, and tools for more effective international co-ordination across a wide range of areas”. Importantly, it seeks to ensure “equitable and timely access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics”.

Negotiations on the Pandemic Treaty highlighted the distinction between those who focus on individual freedom compared to the huge numbers who seek to make decisions for the community good.

Iran, for example, took the view that the treaty did not go far enough while Russia believed it would interfere too much with national sovereignty and, like others, saw it as a “grab for power” by the United Nations.

No country voted against this international legislation. The vast majority of countries accept that viruses know no borders. The countries who abstained were Bulgaria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, the Russian Federation and Slovakia. 

The US representatives did not take part in the vote and cannot be considered part of the agreement. Apparently, not taking part in the vote is not considered abstaining. Internationally, it is just another example of being left in no-man’s land.

Was it a “grab for power” by the WHO (which is a body of the UN). The answer is simply no! 

Rather it is an attempt for sensible countries to outline how they will work together for better health outcomes across the world when the next pandemic arrives.

The Pandemic Treaty “affirms the sovereignty of countries in addressing public health matters within their borders, noting that nothing in the draft agreement shall be interpreted as providing WHO any authority to direct, order, alter, or prescribe national laws or policies, or mandate states to take specific actions, such as ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures, or implement lockdowns”.

According to the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhonam Ghebreyesus: “It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during COVID-19”.

The Pandemic Treaty also means “pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System will play a key role in equitable and timely access to pandemic-related health products by making available to WHO “rapid access targeting 20 per cent of their real time production of safe, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for the pathogen causing the pandemic emergency”.

In a time of such turmoil in the world, it is heartening to see so many countries willing to work together to improve human health.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He is a past president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations.