US rejects WHO global pandemic response accord

WASHINGTON (Reuters): The United States has rejected an agreement adopted by members of the World Health Organization to improve preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to COVID-19, the government said on Friday.

The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted on Friday the official U.S. rejection of the legally binding pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations.

The pact aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20% of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access.

U.S. negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the U.S. – by far the WHO’s largest financial backer – from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the U.S. would not be bound by the pact.

“Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO’s ability to facilitate ‘equitable access’ of health commodities,” the U.S. statement said.

“Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-coordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions,” said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety, had slammed WHO in a video address to the Assembly during its vote, saying it had failed to learn from the lessons of the pandemic with the new agreement.

Kennedy and Rubio said on Friday that the rejection protects U.S. sovereignty. The pact leaves health policy to national governments and contains nothing that overrides national sovereignty, however.