NEW PANDEMIC TREATY

1. Context 

2. About Pandemic Treaty

• The WHO already has binding rules known as the International Health Regulations, which in 2005 set out countries' obligations where public health events have the potential to cross borders.
• These include advising the WHO immediately of a health emergency and measures on trade and travel.
• Adopted after the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, these regulations are still considered appropriate for regional epidemics, such as Ebola but inadequate for a global pandemic.
• These regulations are also being reviewed in the wake of COVID-19.
• For the new more wide-reaching pandemic accord, member states have agreed that it should be legally binding for those who sign up, overcoming early reservations from the United States.
• It would be only the second such health accord after the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty which aims to reduce smoking via taxation and rules on labelling and advertising.
• However, the proposed treaty has come under fire on social media, mostly from right-wing critics warning it could lead to countries ceding authority to the WHO.
• The body strongly refutes this, stressing that governments are leading the negotiations and are free to reject the accord.

3. Views on the pact

• The European Union, which proposed the accord is seen as its biggest backer. 
• Developing countries, especially in Africa are keen to use the negotiations to secure better access to vaccines following allegations of "vaccine apartheid" from the WHO's Director-General Tedros.
• After five rounds of formal negotiations, the latest 208-page draft of the treaty still includes thousands of brackets, which mark areas of disagreement or undecided language, including over the definition of the word "pandemic".
• With so many member countries involved, securing an agreement may be tricky.

4. Regulations

• It is not yet clear how the 2005 regulations and the new pandemic accord might fit together.
• One suggestion is that they should be complementary so that existing rules apply to local outbreaks with the new rules kicking in if the WHO declares a pandemic something it does not currently have a mandate to do.
• It is also not yet clear what happens if the measures are not followed.
• A Co-chair of the talks said it would be preferable to have a peer-review process, rather than sanction non-compliant states.

5. Reforms in the work

• Separate talks on reforming the 2005 rules are taking place, with countries proposing some 300 amendments.
• Washington's initial proposals aimed to boost transparency and grant the WHO quicker access to outbreak sites.
• China did allow WHO-led expert teams to visit the COVID-19 epicentre in Wuhan, but the WHO says Beijing is still withholding clinical data from early cases that may hold clues about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• Negotiators privately grumble about the overlap between the two sets of talks and a joint meeting to clarify their agendas is planned.