The world has seen a massive development that will help people and the world the next time there is a pandemic or a COVID-like situation facing the planet.
Members of the World Health Organization came to a historic agreement to make sure that the world is all set and prepared for future pandemics. This has been no easy feat, and it took more than three years of super tough talks to get this agreement among various countries of the world. The organization revealed early on Wednesday that the struggle was long and hard, and it took a while to get here. There was a lot of worry and concern after the COVID issue that the world was not on one page.
Legally Binding Agreement to Save Lives
This is a framework that will bind countries according to legal standards. Unlike the voluntary kinds of initiatives, such as pledges to support poor countries dealing with climate change for instance, this is much more different and is all set to be taken seriously.
The last time a pandemic caught the world off guard, millions of people were killed, panic gripped the world, and billions were under lockdown for years. In fact, during the last pandemic, the price of oil, for instance, went into negative territory. Oil was free, and people were looking to offload their holdings.
Businesses were able to make a killing off the backs of the ordinary in large part because of fear. There was no unity in order to try to deal with this.
Strong Framework for Cooperation
The proposal details a comprehensive plan with measures to make sure we do not have terrible future pandemics and improve global collaboration. This includes coming up with a pathogen access and benefit sharing mechanism and creating geographically diverse research labs among others.
The agreement also calls for a global supply chain and logistics system. This, while emphasizing better health system resilience and readiness. Last time the supply chai issues meant that the world economy was not able to get back on its feet for years. The chip shortage and other shortages led to a massive backlog of capacity that prevented businesses from being able to grow and expand.
Measure to Reduce Panic
The main concern is that nobody wants the world to panic like it did last time around.
“After more than three years of intensive negotiations, WHO member states took a major step forward in efforts to make the world safer from pandemics,” the health body stated in a press release for the media.
The proposal outlines steps to prevent future COVID-like situations and global teamwork in response to such global issues in the future.
The agreement is widely being considered to be a victory for the world health body, at a time when multilateral institutions such as the World Health Organization have been hit very hard in fact totally starved of funds by sharp reductions in United States foreign funding.
The United States of America, which did not want to join the early negotiations, left the negotiations this year after the word President in American history, Donald Trump, signed an executive order about two months ago pulling back the United States of America from the World Health Organization and the talks.
Next Steps for the Bill
The proposal will be voted on at the World Health Assembly policy meeting next month, the World Health Organization said in a statement.
“This is a historic moment and a show that with or without the US, countries are committed to working together and to the power of multilateralism,” Nina Schwalbe, the founder of global health think tank Spark Street Advisors, told Reuters.
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