WHO adopts landmark pandemic agreement

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen on a screen delivering his report before delegates during the World Health Assembly in Geneva on Monday. | AFP-JIJI

Wires
May 20, 2025

GENEVA – The U.N. health agency on Tuesday adopted a landmark Pandemic Agreement on tackling future health crises, struck after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the COVID-19 crisis.

The accord aims to prevent the disjointed response and international disarray that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic by improving global coordination and surveillance, as well as access to vaccines, in any future pandemics.

The World Health Organization's decision-making annual assembly adopted the plan on Tuesday at its Geneva headquarters.