Presidents, prime ministers and even opera singers, celebrated the unanimous adoption of the world’s first Pandemic Agreement by consensus at the World Health Assembly (WHA) plenary on Tuesday morning.

Despite the 11th-hour insistence of Slovakia on a vote on the agreement in Committee A on Monday night, none of the World Health Organization (WHO) member states obstructed the agreement’s adoption at the plenary.

Instead, it was presented as a rare example of successful multilateral engagement in a world of heightened conflict.

Head of the African Union and Angolan President João Lourenço commended the WHO’s resilience in the face of “unfair and unjust criticism”, and pledged an additional $8 million from his country to the WHO.

Speaking on behalf of the 55 AU member states, Lourenço said the continent is “united in supporting the proposal to increase assessed contributions” [membership fees] as “the WHO is the only institution with a universal mandate to protect global health and promote equity”.

China’s Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong pledged an “additional quota of $500 million over five years” to the WHO, at the plenary, and urged all countries to “support the WHO to play a central coordinating role in global health governance” and enable it “to perform its duty in an independent, professional and science-based manner”.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, also in the room, described the WHO as “a beacon of hope and a guardian of humanity’s right to health”. 

Plenković described sustainable financing of the WHO as “a strategic imperative” to enable “timely responses to emergencies and meaningful support where it is needed most”. 

Macron appeals to US scientists

“Our first line of defence is the WHO,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in a recorded message. He then appealed to “all those researchers who want to freely continue to do their work” – a veiled reference to US scientists dismissed during US President Donald Trump’s massive budget cuts – to move to Europe.

“We will be happy to welcome you in Europe, because that will be good for Europe, for medical research, for you and for everyone. It’s not a question of ‘if’ we will have a new pandemic. It’s a question of ‘when’ we’ll have it,” said Macron.

South African and G20 President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the leaders of the Philippines, Peru, Mongolia and Senegal also sent recorded messages of support.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a coherent global health architecture and described the pandemic agreement as “historic”.

As one leader after another defended the WHO and multilateralism, Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO loomed as the elephant in the room – and the target of unspoken rebuke. So it was timely – but also surprising – that US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr also sent a recorded message to the plenary.

Unlike the other messages, however, Kennedy claimed that the WHO “has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics”.

“The WHO has not even come to terms with its failures during COVID, let alone made significant reforms. Instead, it has doubled down with the pandemic agreement, which will lock in all of the dysfunctions of the WHO pandemic response,” he added, without articulating any specific US objections to the agreement.  

‘Eyes on the prize’

Addressing the plenary after the leaders’ messages, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus paid tribute to those who negotiated the pandemic agreement.

“You have engaged in very tough negotiations. Sometimes the disagreements were sharp, the discussions heated and the frustration evident. Sometimes it seemed the distance between you might be too great to overcome. But you kept your eyes on the prize, and did not stop until you had achieved it,” said Tedros, adding that sometimes delegates had talked all night in the windowless basement room of the WHO headquarters where the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) met.

“The pandemic agreement has been negotiated by countries for countries, and will be implemented in countries in accordance with their own national laws,” stressed Tedros, referring to the “torrent of mis- and disinformation” that claimed the agreement will “infringe on national sovereignty” and  give the WHO Secretariat “power to impose mask or vaccine mandates or lockdowns.

“Today, you have sent a loud message that multilateralism not only works, but is the only way to find shared solutions to shared threats. Let’s not understate what you have achieved. You have made the world a safer place,” stressed Tedros.

Pathogens ‘won’t wait’

The agreement was welcomed by the co-chairs of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, and Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

“Consider this agreement a foundation from which to build, starting today,” said Clark. “Many gaps remain in finance, equitable access to medical countermeasures and in understanding evolving risks. Don’t wait to get started. Dangerous pathogens are looming, and they certainly will not wait.

‘US is not indispensible’

Image Credits: WHO.