The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, highlighted the crucial importance of next week’s assembly to negotiate an international treaty to prepare for future pandemics, and called on governments to strive to achieve it.
“The current chaos of this pandemic shows that the world needs a global agreement that establishes rules for preparing and responding to future pandemics.”, He stressed.
The special session of the World Health Assembly, which from November 29 to December 1 will bring together the heads of health networks from around the globe, “it is a unique opportunity to reach an agreement that transcends electoral interests”, He assured.
“It will not be achieved overnight, but I hope that the assembly will serve as a launching pad for the development of the international agreement, because even as we respond to the current pandemic, we cannot lose sight of other threats to our health.”Tedros added.
The head of the WHO said that a treaty would better define the health response requirements of the states, after many of them demonstrated not to be sufficiently prepared for a pandemic like the current one.
“This could be verified at the beginning of the pandemic, when many countries prohibited the export of masks and other materials.“And currently continues with restrictions on the export of vaccines, he lamented.
Tedros also recalled that next week another relevant meeting for the fight against the pandemic will be held, the XII Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in which, among other points, a possible suspension of patents to manufacture vaccines will be discussed. and anti-COVID treatments.
“The vast majority of countries support this suspension of intellectual property rights, and we hope that a consensus will be reached that can allow us to move forward”He declared.
In this sense, Tedros recalled that this week a license was granted to the WHO for the first time to manufacture an anti-COVID tool, an antibody test developed by Spanish scientists, thanks to an agreement signed between this body and the Higher Research Council Scientific (CSIC).
“We thank Spain for this contribution, and we hope it will be the first of many other agreements”Said the CEO.
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