(New: Further reactions.)
Geneva (dpa-AfX)-The world should never panic in a large health emergency like Corona pandemic. That is why the member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed on a pandemic contract. It is intended to prevent chaotic conditions in the procurement of protective material and the unjust distribution of vaccines. The contract is to be passed at the WHO anniversary in May and will only come into force when 60 countries have ratified it. Because negotiations would still be made in sub -items, this should still take at least two years.
Prevention strengthened
Like WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the incumbent Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke of a historical agreement. The contract regulates the quick exchange of DNA sequences of new pathogens. This increases the “probability that a local outbreak will never become a pandemic,” said Lauterbach.
The EU sees the “capacities for pandemic prevention, prevention and reaction as well as the development of new medical countermeasures”, as the EU Commissioner for Health, Olivér Várhlyi, announced. “The global community also sets an important sign of solidarity and multilateralism – and against the trend towards soloism, selfishness and retreat to the snail house,” said the incumbent development minister Svenja Schulze (SPD).
Prevention was particularly important to the Europeans so that fatal pathogens could not spread as possible. A new pandemic is only a matter of time, warns the WHO. The danger grows because people spread in areas that were reserved for the animal world and can get used to people through the contact from animals. Climate change with heat and flooding also favors the spread of insects and pathogens.
Why a contract is necessary
At Corona, every country reacted panic and initially enforced its interests regardless of others. Governments contested each other and when the vaccine was there, many countries have heard it. The weakest countries always pulled the shorter one. While the third vaccination was already administered in Europe, people were still waiting for the first vaccine in other countries.
What the Corona pandemic has done
The previously unknown virus Sars-Cov-2 spread from China from the end of 2019 within weeks. At least seven million deaths are attributed directly to an infection worldwide. Together with indirect consequences, it should have been a good 36 million deaths according to estimates: people who could not visit a doctor because of the pandemic or whose treatment was postponed in the hospital. The economy collapsed worldwide, and millions of small business owners went bankrupt.
What will be different with the contract
Prevention: Countries undertake to strengthen their health systems and the monitoring of the animal kingdom in such a way that outbursts of illness are quickly discovered and suffocated in the bud if possible.
Suppliers: All countries should have access to protective material, medication and vaccine. Health personnel should be cared for first.
Technology transfer: Pharmaceutical companies should share their know-how so that medication and vaccines can also be produced in other countries.
Research and development: DNA sequences of pathogenes are to be freely available for the development of medication and vaccines. In return, Pharmaceutical companies of the WHO should donate ten percent of their production to distribution in poorer countries and give another ten percent at affordable prices (PABS system). The modalities still have to be negotiated. That should be in an appendix to the contract.
Which compromises were necessary
This can be heard from negotiation circles: the African countries would have liked to enforce stricter requirements in the Pabs system, as well as better commitments for technology transfer and clearer commitments for financing aid to strengthen health systems. European negotiators would have liked to have had stronger requirements for prevention.
The conspiracy theories
Campaigns have long been running against the WHO and the contract, especially on social networks. It is rumored that the WHO can order compulsory measures in the next pandemic. The very conservative Swiss weekly newspaper “Weltwoche” also hits the notch: “With the new contractual work, the WHO would actually be the most powerful authority in the world, an authority that decides on the state of emergency,” she writes.
That is not the case. Article 24 expressly states that the WHO or its general director cannot order domestic legal provisions or measures. It cannot impose any travel restrictions, force vaccinations or order Lockdowns, explicitly in the text. The contract only applies in countries that ratify it. No punitive measures are provided if a country does not meet its obligations.
As the Pharmaceutical industry Reacts
She insists that the patent protection is not loosened. Otherwise, risky investments in research were no longer worthwhile, says the general director of the association of pharmaceutical manufacturers, IFPMA, David Reddy. The participation of companies in any agreements should be voluntary.
The role of the USA
The United States is outside. When Donald Trump took office, they no longer participated in the negotiations. Trump announced the exit from the WHO anyway, which will be effective in January 2026. Argentina also explained the exit and the committee of the negotiations on a record that it does not follow the consensus on the text. The WHO 194 still has member countries./OE/DP/Men