How to prevent new pandemics?

Should we give more powers to the WHO?

How to regulate access to vaccines?

The 194 members of the UN agency are meeting on Monday to build the post-Covid world and prevent other disasters.

This 74th World Health Assembly (May 24-June 1) takes place online as the international community strives to speed up vaccination in poor countries, far behind, to end the pandemic that still looms large. rage and revive the global economy.

In addition to the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, several heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and governments are due to speak on Monday.

A more powerful organization called for

The main issue of this meeting, described by Dr Tedros as "one of the most important in the history of WHO", is the reform of the agency and its capacity to coordinate the response to global health crises and prevent future epidemics.

Several countries, in particular European ones, are calling for a more powerful organization, capable of carrying out independent surveys and better endowed financially, while only 16% of the budget comes from compulsory contributions from states.

Despite the sense of urgency, some fear that the results of the meeting will be insignificant because of disagreements between countries, especially on the question of the powers to be given to the WHO.

"This is not something easy to accept for many states, because sovereignty is not something that you can easily play with", notes Gian Luca Burci, professor of international law at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

Investigation under duress?

Several reports of experts commissioned by the WHO call for vast reforms of warning and prevention systems to avoid another health fiasco, while too many countries still do not have the necessary public health capacities to protect their own populations and to protect themselves. alert the international community and the WHO in good time to any health risks.

These reports also ask that the WHO can investigate on the ground in the event of a crisis without waiting for the green light from the countries, but this proposal risks running up against the susceptibilities of certain States.

WHO cannot at this time investigate on its own in a country.

It took him several months of discussions with China for a team of independent scientists, mandated by the UN organization, to be able to go there to study the origin of the Covid.

Resist political pressure

One of the reports calls for the authority of the head of the WHO to be reinforced by a single term of seven years without the possibility of re-election (against a current term of five years renewable), so that he escapes political pressure.

The draft resolution on the strengthening of WHO, which should be approved, calls for the creation of a working group to study all the proposals of the experts and then make, in turn, recommendations for the next assembly.

The text also calls on the head of the WHO to make proposals to improve the health alert system, in particular through a possible regional mechanism.

It also plans to launch a pilot project for a mechanism to assess the level of pandemic preparedness of each state by its peers, such as at the UN Human Rights Council.

Only countries that wish to do so, such as France, would participate in the test phase.

Vaccine inequality in question

During the assembly, the countries should also decide or not to launch negotiations on a treaty on pandemics, intended to better face future crises and to avoid the every man for himself highlighted by the Covid.

Far from having triggered a surge of solidarity, the crisis has increased tensions.

Vaccination inequality is widening, and the issue of access to drugs should also be debated next week by WHO members.

As in every assembly, the WHO should also be urged by the United States to allow Taiwan to participate in the meeting, at least by restoring its observer status which the island enjoyed until 2016. Taiwan has since been excluded from the WHO under pressure from China, which considers the island to be an integral part of its territory.

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