The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has urged countries not to delay the approval of the international treaty any longer in order to be prepared for future pandemics.
“We cannot procrastinate. If we don’t make the necessary changes, who will make them? And if we don’t make them now, when? When the next pandemic knocks on the door, and it will, we must be prepared to respond decisive, collective and equitable”, Tedros defended during his speech this Monday at the World Health Assembly, which is being held in Geneva (Switzerland).
The top leader of the United Nations international health organization has warned that, despite the fact that the international emergency due to COVID-19 has ended, “there is still a threat that another variant will appear that causes new waves of disease and death”.
Likewise, it has warned that “the threat continues to exist that another pathogen with even more deadly potential will appear.” “And pandemics are far from the only threat we face,” he added in this regard.
For this reason, it has insisted before all the Member States of the WHO on the need to have a pandemic preparedness mechanism: “In a world of overlapping and converging crises, an effective architecture for preparation and response to health emergencies must address emergencies of all guy”.
Tedros believes that this year’s High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Preparedness and Response could be “a valuable opportunity for leaders to chart a clear path toward that future.”
“We need a generational commitment that we will not go back to the old cycle of panic. and neglect that left our world vulnerable, but we will move forward with a shared commitment to meet shared threats with a shared response. That is why we say that the pandemic is a generational commitment: a commitment from this generation is important because this generation experienced how terrible a small virus can be,” argued the director general of the WHO.
Thus, and in conclusion, it has asked all Member States to “participate constructively and urgently in the negotiations on the pandemic agreement” as well as in updating the International Health Regulations, so that “the world will never again have to face the devastation of a pandemic like COVID-19”.