The WHO is studying a treaty to deal with pandemics

The goal, set some time ago, is an international agreement on prevention and preparedness regarding pandemics.

ROME – The definition of a treaty to be ready in the face of new possible pandemics is at the center of the work of the 77th assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) starting today in Geneva, in Switzerland. The organisation’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, referred to the commitment this morning, also with a message spread on the social network regarding pandemics. Roland Driece, co-president of the WHO committee responsible for drafting the document, however underlined that there remain more than one obstacle to an agreement. “We are not where we would have hoped to be when we started” said the manager only last Friday, close to the start of the meeting. According to the Kenyan newspaper The Star, it is expected that the negotiators will ask for more time to get closer to an agreement. From today, the health ministers of the 194 WHO member countries will meet in Geneva. According to Tedros, disparities between rich and developing countries in access to vaccines and other essential medicines still represent “a catastrophic moral failure”.