Expert: The world is not ready to face another pandemic

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The world is not prepared for another health crisis like Covid-19, a global health expert has warned, as countries make a final push to agree a way forward on a treaty on the pandemic.

Member states of the World Health Organization met in Geneva on Friday to determine how to continue negotiations on an agreement after the deadline was passed this month.

“We only hope that in the next few months we will not face another pandemic that finds us in a world that is still not prepared to face a major crisis,” said Muhammad Ali Butt, a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

A major sticking point in the treaty has been provisions that low- and middle-income countries must receive 20% of tests, treatments and vaccines developed to fight the pandemic, either at non-profit costs or donated.

Ali Butt said this number was reasonable to avoid the scramble for life-saving products, which has left African countries last in line during the Covid-19 crisis.

The sources said that while talks on the treaty are likely to continue for months or even years, a parallel process to update the current set of rules governing disease outbreaks at the international level is moving closer to an agreement, and it could be signed before the end of the World Health Organization's annual meeting on Saturday. .