WHO member states adopt pandemic agreement without U.S.

The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday adopted a landmark agreement to promote the timely and equitable distribution of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics during a pandemic.

The accord came in response to the global impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic following over three years of discussions, which proceeded without the U.S. after President Donald Trump initiated a 12-month-long process to withdraw from the WHO.

“The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration, and commitment of our member states to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked.

The agreement was finalized at a plenary session of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s top decision-making body, after representatives of Slovakia, headed by the country’s COVID-19 vaccine skeptic prime minister, called for a vote.

During Monday’s vote, 124 nations voted in favor of an agreement, and none objected, while countries including Poland, Israel, Italy, Russia, Slovakia, and Iran abstained from voting.

In a prerecorded video scheduled to be broadcast before the World Health Assembly, his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reasoned why the U.S. decided to leave the WHO.

“While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public,” RFK Jr. said in the video shared with Fox News.

The legally binding agreement requires participating pharmaceutical manufacturers to allocate 20% of their vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic tests to the WHO during a pandemic.

The agreement is expected to take effect after the finalization of a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) the progress of which will be taken up at next year’s World Health Assembly.

COVID vaccine makers: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX), Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX), AstraZeneca (AZN), GSK (GSK)/ Sanofi (SNY), Valneva (VALN)

COVID-19 test makers: Becton, Dickinson (BDX), QuidelOrtho (QDEL), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY), Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO).

Makers of COVID treatments: Merck (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Gilead (GILD)