WHO member states unanimously approve Pandemic Agreement
The member states of the World Health Organization have adopted a new international treaty to strengthen measures against future infectious diseases.
The WHO members unanimously approved the Pandemic Agreement in a plenary session in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday.
The treaty calls on countries to promote the transfer of knowledge and technology for the production of vaccines to developing countries. It also aims to launch a new framework for countries to share information on pathogens to help accelerate the production of vaccines and medicines.
The member states have been discussing the agreement for three years with the aim to better respond to the next pandemic based on lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agreement is a victory for science and multilateral action. He said it will ensure that the WHO can better protect the world from future pandemic threats.
The member states will decide the details of the agreement by next year's plenary session. The treaty will take effect after ratification or other procedures by 60 members.
But the United States, which announced its intention to withdraw from the WHO, did not attend the plenary session. The US is the largest financial contributor to the WHO.
The Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in a video message on Fox News that the US will not participate in the treaty.
Withdrawal of the United States from the WHO would have an adverse impact on global measures against future infectious diseases.
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Japan Times
6 hours ago
- Japan Times
LGBTQ+ suicide risk rises as Trump cuts mental health services
Seventeen-year-old Elliot Schneider knows how vital mental health support can be. The American teenager, who uses the pronouns they/them, was just 12 when they came out as non-binary following a battle with depression and anxiety. Without their supportive parents and community, they are not sure they would have survived. "Going through female puberty was one of the most uncomfortable and confusing times in my life. I knew it wasn't supposed to be happening to me," Schneider said by video call from Austin, Texas. At 15, Schneider lost a close friend to suicide, prompting them to become a mental health advocate for LGBTQ+ youth. They are now terrified for their peers by the government's plans to slash the Health and Human Services Department's budget, which includes the elimination of specialised mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth at the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, reached by the three-digit short code 988. The LGBTQ+ hotline receives more than 2,000 calls a day. Coupled with President Donald Trump's executive orders against the LGBTQ+ community, such as ending non-binary recognition and banning gender-affirming care for people under 19 years of age, the loss of such a service could be fatal, Schneider said. "These changes are going to lead to the deaths of many, many LGBTQ kids, especially transgender kids," Schneider said. "If people can't get access to their gender-affirming care anymore, they will be so uncomfortable in their bodies, they think that not living is better." 'Shortsighted and dangerous' The 988 line was launched in the United States in July 2022, after Trump signed the bipartisan National Suicide Hotline Designation Act into law during his first term in 2020. Its specialised LGBTQ+ service connects people under the age of 25 with trained counsellors 24 hours a day. The Department of Health and Human Services' preliminary budget, made public in April, revealed the LGBTQ+ service would be dropped, although funding for 988 would continue. If the budget is approved by Congress, the service will end in October. "The president's budget funds the 988 at $520 million — the same number as under Biden," Rachel Cauley, communications director at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said by email. A same-sex marriage supporter holds a rose to mourn those who died of suicide in Taiwan after discrimination during a parliament vote on three draft bills of a same-sex marriage law, outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on May 17, 2019. | REUTERS "It does not, however, grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counsellors' without consent or knowledge of their parents." On May 13, more than 100 members of Congress sent a letter, urging Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to reject the proposal to end 988's services for LGBTQ+ people, calling it a "shortsighted and dangerous plan". The letter said the LGBTQ+ hotline receives 2,100 calls per day and has been contacted more than 1.3 million times since 2022. Alejandro Jimenez de Ferry, a 20-year-old trans student from San Antonio, Texas, called a mental health helpline when a friend attempted suicide at age 13. "People don't realize the many ways suicide hotlines help people. Even waiting on hold can be so important," said Jimenez de Ferry by phone. "Just having just a second to speak to somebody really is able to quite literally talk you off the ledge." Around 90% of LGBTQ+ young people reported that politics, including rising anti-trans rhetoric, has impacted their well-being, according to a survey published by The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention charity for LGBTQ+ youth, in January. "LGBTQ+ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers — not because of who they are but because of how they're mistreated and stigmatised," Janson Wu, vice president of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project said. "Anti-LGBTQ+ bullying, discrimination and violence play primary roles in elevating the risk for suicide." 'Trauma and stress' Since returning to office in January, Trump has signed executive orders to curb LGBTQ+ rights, many of which directly impact young people, such as blocking federally funded schools from teaching about "gender ideology," banning gender-affirming care under the age of 19 and preventing trans female students from participating in girls' and women's sports at high schools or universities. This year the United States is on track to introduce a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws, with rights groups counting a total of 575 as of April. "There's been a pretty sharp increase in the intensity of the conversations at each meeting we have," said Hannah Edwards, director of Transforming Families, a peer-support group for trans and non-binary children and their parents in Minnesota, considered a "trans refuge state" for its laws that protect the community. "There's a lot of trauma and stress coming from outside sources." LGBTQ+ groups are also struggling with loss of funding in 2025 as Trump's push against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies encourages companies to pull back on sponsorships. It Gets Better, a storytelling organisation created following a wave of suicides among LGBTQ+ youth, said it relies on corporate support for 75% of its funding, but had seen "major brands" reduce their backing. Suicide rates in the United States peaked in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up 3% from 2021. The rising number shows helplines are not enough, said Brian Wenke, director of It Gets Better. If defunding 988's LGBTQ+ services "is going to happen, we have to look at it as an opportunity to do better," Wenke said. "Affirming schools, inclusive education, supportive media — all reduce suicide risk. Young people are more resilient when they know they are not alone." If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 119 in Japan for immediate assistance. The TELL Lifeline is available for those who need free and anonymous counseling at 03-5774-0992. You can also visit . For those in other countries, visit for a detailed list of resources and assistance.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Trump's WHO withdrawal could cost the U.S. dearly
While the COVID-19 pandemic is firmly in the past for many Americans, U.S. households continue to bear the costs of infectious-disease outbreaks. A few months ago, the price of eggs in the United States soared to a record high, largely owing to the spread of H5N1 bird flu. Since March 2024, the virus has ravaged U.S. chicken farms, leading to tens of millions of poultry deaths from infection or culling. More ominously, at least 70 human cases of bird flu have been identified in the U.S., with one death reported in Louisiana. In a recent report about enhancing the response to H5N1 in America and globally, the Global Virus Network, a consortium of the world's top virologists, warned of 'the terrible consequences of underreacting to current threats.' But while bird flu poses the most immediate risk to Americans, it is by no means the only one. Virulent infectious-disease outbreaks in other countries, such as mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ebola in Uganda, Marburg in Tanzania and multicountry outbreaks of cholera do not respect borders and thus are a threat to people everywhere — including in the U.S. Without the efforts of the World Health Organization to contain these outbreaks, the risks of wider transmission would be much greater. This underscores the need for a global agency like the WHO to supervise cross-border cooperation — and the shortsightedness of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the organization. Despite being the world's richest and most powerful country, America is not immune to another COVID-19-style calamity and abandoning multilateralism and neglecting pandemic preparedness (such as the stockpiling of treatments and vaccines) will make it all the more vulnerable. One might think that the deadly spread of COVID-19, prolonged by the emergence of new virus strains, would convince policymakers to strengthen the world's public-health architecture — especially as experts warn that future pandemics could be even worse. But with other leaders indicating that they may follow Trump's example and leave the WHO, the resources for pandemic prevention and control could dwindle to the point that global outbreaks become more frequent and difficult to overcome. If Trump follows through with the move, his administration will become increasingly isolated and impotent. American officials, including at U.S. military installations abroad, will lose access to the WHO-led and -facilitated global networks that collect and share information about infectious-disease threats and respond to outbreaks. Moreover, the U.S. government will have no say in developing new solutions (which will almost invariably be less effective) for controlling the spread of diseases across borders — including its own. Trump has suggested that he may change his mind, presumably if the grievances set out in his executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the organization are addressed. This implies that the WHO should apply pressure on China to identify the pandemic's origins. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for his part, has refused to accept the Chinese government's prevarications. If Trump can propose a way to determine the cause of COVID-19, I am sure that the WHO's leadership would gladly hear it. Trump's second condition is that the WHO undertake reforms and use its resources more effectively at the local level, with a greater focus on stopping the spread of infectious diseases. This is a demand that can and should be met. To that end, Tedros has already promised more targeted use of funds and implemented other measures to transform the organization. In addition, under Tedros, the WHO has transformed the way it raises funds. Its member states have sharply increased their annual contributions and it has diversified its donor base to share the funding load more widely. This is all part of the WHO's drive to be more sustainably financed, a plan launched as part of Tedros's effort to transform the organization's operations after he took office in 2017. Back then, he and member states assessed that the departure of a major donor could leave the WHO's programs and independence vulnerable to funding shocks. Who knew it would be the U.S. But, had those changes not been made, we can only imagine how much more challenging the WHO's current financial situation would be. The Trump administration should welcome these changes, not least because it benefits from having a seat at the table. If the U.S. ultimately abandons the WHO, developing evidence-based guidance and regulations for chronic-disease prevention and management will be significantly harder, undermining the administration's goal of addressing America's chronic-disease epidemic. The U.S. will also no longer be a part of the WHO's medicine prequalification process, a program that opens a host of new markets for drug producers in a cost-effective manner. Instead, U.S. pharmaceutical companies will be forced to sell their prequalified products to each country individually, putting them at risk of losing access to highly profitable multibillion dollar markets. Twenty-first-century trends — including more mobility and international travel, greater urbanization and increasing human encroachment on nature — fuel the global spread of infectious diseases, to the detriment of everyone. U.S. officials would be better positioned to protect their citizens if they joined — and perhaps even led — a discussion on how the WHO and other global health organizations, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, can meet the world's needs. One such initiative, in which the U.S. had been a strong partner until Trump took office, was to negotiate a WHO Pandemic Agreement, which WHO member states adopted by consensus at the World Health Assembly on May 20. This historic compact, based on the principles of equity, collaboration and the reaffirmation of national sovereignty in public-health decision-making, will make the world safer from future pandemics. The U.S., bolstered by its world-class medical professionals and substantial public investment in medical research, has long exerted considerable influence on global health priorities. But withdrawing from the WHO places America on the outside, unable to shape the agency's policy agenda and reforms. When the next pandemic strikes, the U.S. will be left watching from the sidelines, as the WHO and its remaining member countries manage the global response and pick up the pieces as they see fit. Gordon Brown, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of Education Cannot Wait. © Project Syndicate, 2025.
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Editorial: With WHO Pandemic Agreement, global cooperation needed to raise its efficacy
Member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted an agreement at a general meeting that sets forth a response the international community should take in the event of a future pandemic. Multilateral cooperation must be strengthened and measures to protect lives must be advanced. During the coronavirus pandemic, which claimed more than seven million lives, WHO was delayed in its initial response, leaving developing countries unable to secure sufficient vaccine supplies due in part to hoarding by developed nations. The Pandemic Agreement aims to address these shortcomings and create a global environment in which everyone can benefit equally from medical care. Under the initiative, advanced nations support developing countries in securing medicinal products and procuring funds. In exchange for collecting information on pathogens necessary for drug development and providing it to pharmaceutical companies WHO will receive at least 10% of vaccines produced as a donation. These vaccines will then be distributed to developing countries. The detailed design of the system will be finalized over the next year. WHO member states will also work to develop domestic laws to request pharmaceutical firms to supply vaccines. The agreement will take effect upon ratification by 60 countries. The question is how effective the agreement will prove. The United States, a pharmaceutical powerhouse, was absent from the General Assembly after President Donald Trump's administration announced the country's withdrawal from the WHO. Unless major U.S. drugmakers, which led the world in the development of COVID-19 vaccines, participate in the donation program, meaningful results cannot be expected. A system to encourage companies to join the initiative must be established. Washington has also stopped contributing operating funds to WHO, compelling the latter to significantly slash its budgets and undergo restructuring. This is likely to hinder efforts to secure personnel for assisting developing countries. The negotiations, which began in 2022, came to a brink of collapse after the rift between developed and developing nations deepened. Yet, the world has no alternative to WHO as a control tower when a pandemic arrives. It deserves credit that member countries came together and drew up the new rules after extending negotiations by a year amid the U.S. absence. False information over the agreement, such as that WHO will forcibly vaccinate people, became viral worldwide via social media. There is no such clause, and the agreement stipulates that the sovereignty of member states will be respected. Both the WHO and its members should exhaust all efforts to send out correct information. A new pandemic could occur at any time. Countries must take the adoption of the agreement as an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of international cooperation.
