Worldwide agreement: Pandemie contract at the WHO assembly decided

Worldwide agreement: Pandemie contract at the WHO assembly decided

Genf, Schweiz - On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, more than 190 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva passed a historical pandemic contract. According to OE24 this is a crucial step to prepare the world better for future pandemics and health crises, in particular according to the challenges of the Corona crisis. The agreement on the contract was concluded after three years of intensive negotiations and represents significant progress in global health architecture.

The Agreement aims to avoid chaotic conditions during pandemics, as they have been observed in the past. One of the main components of the contract is the creation of a new mechanism to quickly pass on data on pathogens to pharmaceutical companies, which is intended to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapies. This is to ensure that wealthy countries do not receive any vaccines and poorer countries, so reports The press .

political reactions and resistance

Despite the broad approval of the international level, there are considerable resistance to the contract in some countries. In Austria, the FPÖ, the largest National Council party, rejected the agreement and started an online petition. The party argues that the contract could create unfavorable conditions for national health care and fear that national sovereignty will be endangered in health matters.

The contractual framework is discussed by the Member States and is intended to contain regulations for pandemic prevention, prevention and reaction in order to provide a guide for action both before and during a pandemic. The focus is on strengthening capacity for early detection and resilience, such as the Federal Ministry of Health . However, it can be expected that it will take years for the agreement to finally come into force because it requires the ratification of at least 60 countries.

outlook on the implementation

A controversial topic that arose in the negotiations concerns the conditions for providing dangerous microorganisms to vaccine manufacturers. This topic was moved to an attachment that has not yet been finally negotiated. The technical implementation of the mechanism for data transfer is expected to be approved by the Member States next year. The WHO secretariat will support international negotiations, but the Member States only determine the content of the agreement.

Overall, the adoption of the pandemic contract shows a strong political commitment of the international community to combat pandemic threats. It remains to be seen how the individual countries will implement the measures, especially in view of the different national laws and framework conditions.