World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on countries to sign up to the health organization's pandemic treaty so the world can prepare for “Disease X.”
Speaking to an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Ghebreyesus said he hoped countries would reach a pandemic agreement by May to deal with this “common enemy”. Ta.
Disease X is a hypothetical “placeholder” virus that has not yet formed, but scientists say it could be 20 times more deadly than COVID-19. According to a 2022 WHO press release, it was added in 2017 to the candidate list of research pathogens with the potential to cause a “serious international epidemic.”
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to sign up to the health organization's pandemic treaty so the world can prepare for the placeholder virus, dubbed “Disease X.” (Holly Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden's 'pandemic treaty' would cede power to anyone's bureaucrats, House member warns
Ghebreyesus said that while COVID-19 was the first Disease X, it is important to prepare for new pandemics.
“Unknown things can happen, and what happens is a matter of when, not if. So for diseases that we don't know about, we need a placeholder for that.” Ghebreyesus said.
“We lost a lot of people [during COVID] Because we couldn't control them,” Ghebreyesus told the world conference. “We could have saved them, but we didn't have the space. We didn't have enough oxygen. So how do we build a system that can scale when we need it?”
He said a shared response through the treaty would allow the world to better respond to new outbreaks.
'Disease X': World Economic Forum creates contingency plan for infectious virus outbreak
“The pandemic agreement can bring together all the experiences we have faced, all the challenges and all the solutions,” Ghebreyesus said. “This agreement will help us prepare for the future in a better way.”
A person holds a medical syringe and a COVID-19 vaccine bottle in front of the World Health Organization logo displayed on a screen. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“This is a common global interest, and very narrow national interests should not get in the way.”
Ghebreyesus said an independent commission and experts were considering ways to collectively respond, and the deadline for signing the treaty was May.
He said preparedness responses could include early warning systems, organizing supply chains and boosting research and development to test medicines. We will also need to look at primary health care, given that rich countries have struggled with basic responses such as contact tracing and have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
“It's happened many times in our history, so it's better to anticipate what might happen and be prepared for it. You should never face things unprepared. The unknown You can also be prepared for that.”
World leaders met in March 2021 and announced that a treaty was being negotiated and drafted.
“The main goal of this treaty is to promote a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to strengthen national, regional and global capacities and resilience against future pandemics,” said a statement from the leaders of 20 countries. is written like this. .
A 6-year-old girl works at her school desk wearing a reusable protective face mask. The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on countries to sign up to the health organization's pandemic treaty so the world can prepare for a hypothetical virus known as “Disease X.” (St. Petersburg)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“This includes, for example, improving alert systems, data sharing, research, local, regional and global production and distribution of medical and public health measures such as vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and personal protective equipment. This includes a significant increase in international cooperation.”
The Biden administration was negotiating a global pandemic agreement last year. Republican critics said such an agreement would cede sovereignty to the WHO.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.): “The World Health Organization's Pandemic Treaty is so vague that it impinges on our sovereignty and leaves us wondering what health care would be available to Americans in the event of a global pandemic.'' “It could be misused to tell people what is needed,” he said at a press conference in May.
