Six years after COVID-19 forced the United Nations General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders to go largely virtual, pandemics are no longer taking center stage. This year’s global gathering focused more on wars, natural disasters, geopolitical tensions and artificial intelligence than on disease threats.
Still, the General Assembly president and health officials made clear they wanted to keep pandemic risks in the spotlight. The United Nations held a high-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response on Friday at its headquarters in New York.
General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman described the experience of the coronavirus pandemic as a “fever dream” of remote work, Zoom calls, shuttered buildings, overwhelmed health systems, economic disruption and personal tragedies.
Rahman recalled how his daughter, a doctor, left home to treat COVID-19 patients at a hospital. He said he spent nights fearing that he could lose her to the disease. She eventually returned home after two months, although some of her patients died.
Rahman said it is sometimes easier to pretend the pandemic never happened. However, he warned that the world cannot erase COVID-19 from its memory and must learn from what went right and wrong.
He emphasized that the world must stay alert as a rapidly growing Ebola outbreak continues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The World Health Organization reported that Congo had recorded 7,890 confirmed Ebola cases and 3,799 deaths as of September 23. The outbreak had spread to 63 health zones across seven provinces.
Since the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, several new funds and international programs have been created to better handle future disease threats.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new efforts include the Pandemic Fund, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and programs designed to improve access to vaccines and other medical tools.
However, countries were unable to agree on a final political declaration during Friday’s meeting.
Rahman said General Assembly members would consider the draft document again in the future.
The draft declaration aims to improve pandemic readiness and coordination among nations. It calls for more funding, better laboratory capabilities and broader access to medicines and vaccines.
Other parts of the draft include efforts to fight vaccine hesitancy and health-related misinformation. It also calls for gender equality in health policies and universal access to family planning and sexual health services by 2030.
Supporters believe the declaration could help strengthen global cooperation and preparedness for future health threats.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who co-chairs the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said the declaration could help move the world forward.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the proposed declaration includes commitments for concrete and urgent action to address remaining gaps in pandemic preparedness.
Countries including South Korea, Cape Verde and Guatemala expressed support for the declaration. Armenia and Rwanda served as facilitators for negotiations over the document.
Burundian Foreign Minister Edouard Bizimana said the declaration represented an expression of solidarity and international cooperation. He spoke on behalf of a group of African nations.
A group representing Caribbean countries also supported the document.
However, some countries raised objections.
The European Union said the draft did not go far enough in promoting accountability and efficiency in pandemic financing. Germany called for a stronger focus on preventing outbreaks before they grow into larger health emergencies.
The United States objected to language it described as involving “divisive ideologies.” It also objected to language involving a proposed system in which countries would share pathogen samples while receiving access to tests, medicines and vaccines.
That proposed system is being negotiated as a follow-up to the WHO Pandemic Agreement approved by World Health Organization member countries in 2025.
The United States was not part of finalizing the WHO Pandemic Agreement after announcing its withdrawal from the organization.
Despite the disagreement over the UN declaration, health officials said countries have made progress since COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in global pandemic preparedness.
The United Nations says major challenges remain. Those include gaps in disease surveillance, laboratory capabilities, health systems and reliable financing.
Friday’s meeting was intended to maintain political attention on those problems even as wars, geopolitical disputes and other international crises compete for the attention of world leaders.
Rahman said the world cannot eliminate the threat of another pandemic. However, he said countries can decide how prepared they will be when the next major disease threat emerges.
IMAGE: Khalilur Rahman Source pressinform.gov.bd (archive) Author Press Information Department CC0