The US has rejected an agreement adopted by members of the World Health Organisation to improve preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to Covid-19, the government said yesterday.
The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted yesterday the official US rejection of the legally binding pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations.
The pact aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20 per cent of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access.
US negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the US – by far the WHO’s largest financial backer – from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the US would not be bound by the pact.
“Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO’s ability to facilitate ‘equitable access’ of health commodities,” the US statement said.
“Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-co-ordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions,” said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy and Rubio said yesterday that the rejection protects US sovereignty.
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