The United States has rejected an agreement adopted by members of the World Health Organization to improve the preparation for future pandemics after the dismantled global response to COVID-19, the US government said on Friday.
The State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that had transmitted on Friday the official rejection of the United States of the legally binding pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations.
The PACT aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are accessible worldwide when the next pandemic arrives. It requires that participating manufacturers assign a goal of 20 percent of their vaccines, medications and WHO tests during a pandemic to ensure that the poorest countries have access.
American negotiators left discussions about the agreement after President Donald Trump began a 12 -month process of withdrawing the US, with much, the greatest financial sponsor of the WHO, of the agency when he assumed the position in January. Its departure means that the United States would not be bound by the pact.
“Developed without adequate public contributions, these amendments expand the role of WHO in public health emergencies, they create additional authorities for WHO to shape pandemics statements and promote WHO’s ability to facilitate the” equitable access “of health products,” said the statement of the United States.
“The terminology along the amendments of 2024 is vague and wide, risking the coordinated international responses that focus on political issues such as solidarity, instead of rapid and effective actions,” said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Framework Rubio and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubts about the safety of vaccines, had criticized who in a video address to the assembly during his vote, saying that he had not been able to learn from the lessons of the pandemic with the new agreement.
Kennedy and Rubio said Friday that rejection protects the sovereignty of the United States. However, the PACT leaves health policy to national governments and does not contain anything that annuls national sovereignty.
