WHO members miss deadline for pandemic accord draft, will continue talks

Mem­ber coun­tries of the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion said they failed to agree on a draft of a long-await­ed pan­dem­ic agree­ment by a dead­line last week, but the group will con­tin­ue talks ahead of a ma­jor glob­al health meet­ing lat­er this month.

The agree­ment, which has been in the works since 2021, would de­fine mem­ber coun­tries’ re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in fu­ture glob­al health emer­gen­cies, in­clud­ing de­vel­op­ing vac­cines and treat­ments and shar­ing in­for­ma­tion on emerg­ing pathogens. Mem­bers were plan­ning to have a draft by May 10 to present to the full World Health As­sem­bly on May 27, but the WHO an­nounced last week that it will in­stead con­tin­ue ne­go­ti­a­tions up un­til the as­sem­bly.

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