WHO delays pandemic treaty talks

The World Health Assembly ended Thursday’s public update without closing some of the hardest questions in the WHO pandemic framework, even as Ebola controls tightened and health officials managed another cross-border outbreak. WHO said on May 22 that member states in Geneva agreed to launch a joint process on reforms to the global health architecture, while the organization’s pandemic agreement still awaits a separate pathogen-sharing annex before it can fully move ahead. The unresolved annex matters because the WHO Pandemic Agreement adopted on May 20, 2025, cannot open for signature and ratification until countries finish negotiating the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system, or PABS. WHO says that annex is meant to govern rapid sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential and fair access to vaccines, tests and treatments that come from them. (who.int) ### Why are countries still stuck on pathogen-sharing? The PABS annex sits at the center of the dispute because it links two things governments have fought over since COVID-19: who must share samples and sequence data quickly, and who gets the benefits when companies turn that material into products. Reuters reported on May 1 that member states had extended those talks, casting doubt on when the treaty could take effect. (who.int) WHO says the annex is designed to ensure both “rapid and timely” pathogen sharing and “fair and equitable” benefit-sharing. That balance has been politically difficult because lower-income countries have long argued that they should not be expected to hand over critical samples without clearer guarantees on access to resulting countermeasures. ### What did WHO actually decide in Geneva this week? (health.economictimes.indiatimes.com) The Assembly’s May 22 daily update focused on a broader institutional step rather than a final pandemic-treaty breakthrough. WHO said member states decided to establish a joint process, led by governments and hosted by WHO with global health partners, to develop options and recommendations for reforms to the global health architecture. (who.int) The same WHO update said governments asked Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to submit a final report with those options and recommendations to next year’s World Health Assembly. WHO’s own pandemic-agreement page says the separate PABS annex must still be adopted before the full agreement can move to signature and ratification, and Reuters reported earlier this month that any agreement could be submitted to the next assembly in May 2027 or earlier at a special session in 2026. (who.int) ### Why does this look more urgent now than a month ago? On May 18, WHO opened its annual assembly under what the United Nations Office at Geneva described as the shadow of Ebola, hantavirus and funding cuts. The UN said Tedros told delegates that recent crises reinforced the need for stronger international cooperation rather than fragmentation. (who.int) The same UN account said Tedros declared a public health emergency of international concern over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that had spread into Uganda. It also said WHO was coordinating the response to a hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV *Hondius*, whose remaining crew began a 42-day quarantine in the Netherlands after the vessel arrived there on May 18. (ungeneva.org) ### What is the United States doing on Ebola right now? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on May 22 that CDC, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies had announced enhanced travel screening, entry restrictions and other public-health measures on May 18 to prevent Ebola from entering the United States. The agency said the order took effect immediately and will remain in effect for 30 days. (ungeneva.org) CDC said the measures include screening travelers from outbreak-affected areas, supporting state and local monitoring, coordinating with airlines and port officials, and expanding contact tracing, lab testing and hospital readiness. The agency said it still assesses the immediate risk to the general U.S. public as low. ### What happens next in the treaty process? (cdc.gov) The next formal milestone is split between two tracks. WHO said Tedros must deliver reform options on the wider global health architecture to the 2027 World Health Assembly, while the pandemic agreement itself still depends on a completed PABS annex. Reuters reported that member states were expected to let those annex negotiations continue, with any final text able to go either to a special session in 2026 or to the next World Health Assembly in May 2027. (cdc.gov) Until that annex is adopted, WHO says, the full pandemic agreement cannot move into force. (health.economictimes.indiatimes.com) (who.int)