The Fort Worth Press - Pandemic accord deal in sight as talks resume

USD -
AED 3.673013
AFN 67.000105
ALL 90.349844
AMD 387.089652
ANG 1.803403
AOA 912.000311
ARS 992.749951
AUD 1.51896
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.704511
BAM 1.793226
BBD 2.020336
BDT 119.578971
BGN 1.797955
BHD 0.376822
BIF 2895
BMD 1
BND 1.31667
BOB 6.92994
BRL 5.792098
BSD 1.000587
BTN 84.158972
BWP 13.324409
BYN 3.274804
BYR 19600
BZD 2.016999
CAD 1.39029
CDF 2844.000037
CHF 0.86403
CLF 0.034587
CLP 954.359893
CNY 7.099098
CNH 7.119295
COP 4415
CRC 513.542259
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.650103
CZK 23.297498
DJF 177.720072
DKK 6.858495
DOP 60.450135
DZD 133.019115
EGP 49.056099
ERN 15
ETB 121.107442
EUR 0.91962
FJD 2.27595
FKP 0.765169
GBP 0.772085
GEL 2.735037
GGP 0.765169
GHS 16.359917
GIP 0.765169
GMD 71.49938
GNF 8630.000406
GTQ 7.731099
GYD 209.530271
HKD 7.772625
HNL 25.06972
HRK 6.88903
HTG 131.681734
HUF 375.343958
IDR 15798.75
ILS 3.750585
IMP 0.765169
INR 84.15865
IQD 1310
IRR 42105.00025
ISK 136.940239
JEP 0.765169
JMD 158.106101
JOD 0.709101
JPY 152.137991
KES 128.999935
KGS 85.803533
KHR 4075.000227
KMF 452.514885
KPW 899.999774
KRW 1374.80984
KWD 0.30651
KYD 0.833922
KZT 488.942475
LAK 21939.99978
LBP 89600.000085
LKR 293.363651
LRD 191.850061
LSL 17.510075
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.810016
MAD 9.84698
MDL 17.862153
MGA 4615.00039
MKD 56.638201
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3398.000028
MOP 8.01115
MRU 40.000147
MUR 45.830132
MVR 15.409472
MWK 1735.50058
MXN 20.107701
MYR 4.378498
MZN 63.899378
NAD 17.509656
NGN 1643.789837
NIO 36.774964
NOK 11.003205
NPR 134.654282
NZD 1.674355
OMR 0.385026
PAB 1.000706
PEN 3.76825
PGK 4.009502
PHP 58.46204
PKR 277.849676
PLN 4.006502
PYG 7880.549392
QAR 3.640598
RON 4.575603
RSD 107.628957
RUB 98.999977
RWF 1364
SAR 3.755947
SBD 8.306221
SCR 13.729012
SDG 601.495472
SEK 10.725445
SGD 1.319596
SHP 0.765169
SLE 22.72503
SLL 20969.496802
SOS 571.000135
SRD 34.90598
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.755249
SYP 2512.530268
SZL 17.510162
THB 33.77996
TJS 10.657051
TMT 3.51
TND 3.099016
TOP 2.342102
TRY 34.35321
TTD 6.783235
TWD 31.7745
TZS 2690.872994
UAH 41.474075
UGX 3662.002824
UYU 41.690353
UZS 12814.999742
VEF 3622552.534434
VES 42.803037
VND 25320
VUV 118.722039
WST 2.801184
XAF 601.447787
XAG 0.029645
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.751676
XOF 600.49739
XPF 110.249916
YER 249.850204
ZAR 17.509903
ZMK 9001.201624
ZMW 26.842284
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    5.4100

    66.41

    +8.15%

  • CMSC

    0.1100

    24.64

    +0.45%

  • SCS

    0.1100

    12.25

    +0.9%

  • CMSD

    0.1103

    24.92

    +0.44%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.1

    +0.28%

  • BCC

    0.0500

    134.26

    +0.04%

  • NGG

    0.1900

    64.45

    +0.29%

  • BCE

    -2.9800

    29.12

    -10.23%

  • RIO

    -0.3200

    65.01

    -0.49%

  • RELX

    -0.0200

    47.06

    -0.04%

  • GSK

    0.0900

    36.97

    +0.24%

  • VOD

    -0.0300

    9.32

    -0.32%

  • AZN

    0.0100

    71.43

    +0.01%

  • BTI

    0.0400

    35.11

    +0.11%

  • JRI

    0.0500

    13.1

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.5000

    29.73

    +1.68%

Pandemic accord deal in sight as talks resume
Pandemic accord deal in sight as talks resume / Photo: © AFP

Pandemic accord deal in sight as talks resume

After over two years of talks, the World Health Organization's 194 member states reconvened on Monday to secure a deal on tackling future pandemics amid new outbreaks of mpox and other diseases.

Text size:

Hopes are high of wrapping up a landmark accord over the coming fortnight, though the nuts and bolts on how to share pathogens and vaccines are set to be worked out afterwards.

In December 2021, fearing a repeat of the devastation wrought by Covid-19 -- which killed millions of people, crippled health systems and crashed economies -- countries agreed to draft an accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

The emergence of a new strain of mpox, the deadly Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda and the spread of H5N1 bird flu in recent months have given negotiators a jolt.

In its annual report issued in October, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board said the recent spillover of H5N1 to humans and the unfolding mpox outbreak were "clear warnings".

"The high likelihood that they will spread further should be a wake-up call," it warned.

- Equity battle -

The pandemic agreement is being hammered out by the World Health Organization's 194 member states.

Many of the draft text's 37 articles were concluded during the 11 previous rounds of talks.

The key outstanding section revolves around the sharing of pathogens detected within countries, and subsequently of vaccines and other pandemic-fighting products derived from that knowledge.

It has turned into a stand-off between wealthier nations where most of the medicines are developed and poorer countries who felt cut adrift during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The plan is therefore to defer thrashing out how the proposed Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS) would work in practice until after the broader agreement has been concluded.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that whatever countries agreed, the accord had to prevent a repeat of the glaring inequalities exposed by Covid-19.

"If the world has failed with one thing it was the equity issue," he told a press conference on Friday.

"Africa was left behind then, and that should not happen," he said, calling for increased local production of pandemic-fighting products in the global south.

"Most of the things are addressed. There is already a middle ground for many of the difficult issues. If there is a will, there is a way," he insisted.

- 'Diluted and deleted' -

Adding to the momentum, G20 health ministers met in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and voiced support for concluding an agreement.

"We reiterate our commitment to an instrument that is ambitious, balanced, effective and fit-for-purpose, including equitable access to medical countermeasures during pandemics," they said.

But Sangeeta Shashikant, the Third World Network NGO's intellectual property and development coordinator, said many of the PABS proposals put forward by developing countries had been "diluted and deleted".

"Across the board in the pandemic agreement, the feeling is there is really no meaningful deliverable" that would overturn the inequities of Covid-19, she told journalists.

The 12th round of talks comes after the world's biggest nature conservation conference closed in Colombia on Saturday with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection.

The summit's biggest ask -- to lay out a detailed funding plan -- proved a bridge too far, as poor and rich country blocs haggled.

- 'Sour taste' -

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and Liberian ex-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in May 2021 recommended creating a new pandemic treaty.

Clark warned last week that the major reforms needed had not been inked.

"It's not surprising the negotiations for the accord have run into a lot of trouble, because the south sees the north as protecting its pharmaceutical industries," she told London's Chatham House think-tank on Tuesday.

"All of this has left an incredibly sour taste between north and south."

Denis Mukwege, a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the lessons of Covid-19 were being forgotten, citing how countries were stockpiling mpox vaccines rather than flooding the front line in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

D.Ford--TFWP