World leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York on Friday, September 25, renewed calls to invest in preventing and responding to future pandemics, the World Health Organization said. The second UN high-level meeting on pandemic preparedness examined a proposed political declaration focused on equitable access to health tools, stronger national systems and sustained international cooperation. The WHO said the text was expected to go to the General Assembly for further consideration.
The gathering followed the first such high-level meeting in 2023, held after COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in surveillance, health services and access to medical supplies. According to the WHO, leaders reviewed progress that includes adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and changes to the International Health Regulations. They also discussed persistent gaps in financing and in countries' ability to detect and contain threats.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the meeting that continued investment was needed to turn political promises into local and national capacity. The agency said COVID-19 was associated with more than 20 million excess deaths from 2020 to 2023 and erased more than $10 trillion from the global economy. Those figures formed the context for calls to keep preparedness a priority between emergencies.
A central unresolved task is a negotiated annex to the Pandemic Agreement on sharing pathogens with pandemic potential and the benefits from using them. WHO says the proposed system is intended to support research and more timely, equitable access to vaccines, tests and treatments. The agency says adoption of the annex at the World Health Assembly in May 2027 is needed before member states can begin considering ratification of the agreement nationally.
The proposed declaration also emphasizes links between human, animal and environmental health, an approach intended to help prevent outbreaks before they spread. UN General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman called for timely access to medical supplies, resilient health systems and action on financing gaps, according to WHO. The UN meeting included panels on international cooperation and reliable access to critical tools.
The declaration had not been reported as adopted in the WHO release. It was expected to be forwarded to the General Assembly for further consideration, while governments continued negotiating the pathogen-sharing annex. The practical effect of Friday's commitments will depend on future agreements, funding and countries' implementation of stronger surveillance and health systems.
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