AHF: G7 Must Take the Lead on a New Pandemic Treaty

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS care globally, calls on the G7 to spearhead the process of drafting a new pandemic treaty. Plans to initiate this process at the World Health Assembly (WHA) next week should be postponed until the G7 summit on June 11 – 13.

Due to World Health Organization’s (WHO) numerous failures in responding to COVID-19, a global treaty must not be rooted in the World Health Assembly (WHA) governance framework. WHA decision-making power is diffused among 194 Member States, which often results in impasse or resolutions so watered-down by consensus that they have little practical authority in emergencies like a pandemic.

"The G7 and G20 are better positioned to formulate a global public health convention with enough political will and financial resources behind it to make a real difference. We cannot leave the WHO at the center of a global plan to fight and prevent future pandemics, based on their poor performance up until now,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein. “Transparency, accountability, and coordination – vital principles that should be the cornerstone of any pandemic response – have been sorely absent under the leadership of the WHO. The world will keep repeating history with infectious disease outbreaks unless the structure of global public health is reformed. The G7 has the power to be the catalyst for that change – we urge its leaders to initiate the process of creating a new pandemic treaty that works collectively for all nations. These efforts can then pave the way toward further dialogue and negotiations at the G20 summit in Italy at the end of October."

Twenty-one global public health thinkers recently co-authored a paper in The Lancet Public Health journal, titled "A global public health convention for the 21st century", which describes major gaps in the current global public health system, and offers recommendations on the way forward beyond the WHO.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.5 million clients in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare