WHO Announces Completion of Draft Pandemic Agreement
By Stephanie Brown HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, April 17, 2025 -- Member states of the World Health Organization forged a draft agreement seeking to strengthen global collaboration on future pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
The draft agreement will be submitted for consideration and formal approval at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May.
Key aspects of the agreement include establishing a knowledge-sharing system; implementing measures for pandemic prevention; developing geographically diverse research capacities; deploying a skilled, trained, and multidisciplinary national and global health emergency workforce; and creating a coordinating financial mechanism and global supply chain and logistics network. The proposal also includes steps that need to be taken to strengthen preparedness, readiness, and health system functions and resilience.
"The nations of the world made history in Geneva today," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ph.D., WHO director-general, said in a statement. "In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground and a shared response to shared threats."
The proposal confirms that countries have the right to handle public health issues within their own borders. It also specifies that nothing in the draft agreement should be seen as giving the WHO the power to change national laws or policies or to order countries to take specific actions, such as accepting or banning travelers, requiring vaccinations, using specific treatments or tests, or implementing lockdowns.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted April 2025
Further Support and Information on COVID-19
Read this next
RFK Jr. Removes Entire CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel
TUESDAY, June 10, 2025 — U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed all 17 members of the expert panel that makes U.S. vaccine...
Child Gun Deaths Rose in States With Weaker Laws After U.S. Supreme Court Decision
TUESDAY, June 10, 2025 — A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling may have led to more gun deaths of children and teens in states that enacted more lenient gun laws afterward, new...
Are You Ruining Your Child's Chance To Avoid Food Allergies?
TUESDAY, June 10, 2025 — Out of concern, many parents might be spoiling their child’s best chance to avoid developing a food allergy, a new study says. Allergy...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.