WHO Member Countries Agree to Pandemic Treaty

After three years of contentious negotiations, the member nations of the World Health Organization have agreed on a draft of a “pandemic treaty” designed to help the global community better prevent and respond to health crises.

The agreement is aimed at averting the fractious, faltering response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which left many poor nations with limited access to vaccines and treatments. It would oblige wealthy nations to share key information on pathogens, and technology for interventions such as vaccines, with the rest of the world.

The member states are expected to adopt the treaty, which will be legally binding, next month. The United States, which stopped participating in negotiations after President Trump announced plans to withdraw from the W.H.O., is not expected to ratify the treaty.

The draft treaty is more limited in scope than the vision the W.H.O. first proposed during the throes of the Covid pandemic, but it is significant as the first major multilateral agreement in a world where the United States is no longer the unquestioned anchor.

“It shows that with or without the U.S., the world can pull together for global health, and a recognition that pandemics require global solidarity,” said Nina Schwalbe, a global health consultant who has held leadership roles in U.S. and international organizations and who followed the negotiations closely. “They pushed past their red lines and they got to agreement. That’s no easy feat for 191 states. And there’s a lot in there. It’s maybe not as strong as we wanted on many issues, but there’s lots to build on.”

In December 2021, the W.H.O. convened a group of negotiators to hammer out the terms of a new global agreement that it hoped would help countries respond more swiftly and effectively to future health threats.