World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to complete an international pandemic agreement during negotiations in Geneva. Citing a recent deadly hantavirus outbreak, Ebola Bundibugyo spreading in Africa, and the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he emphasized that protecting people requires international cooperation: a pathogen threatening one country can endanger populations elsewhere.
Adopted in May 2025 as a framework for responding to future COVID-like pandemics, the agreement left a central operational question unresolved so that the broader deal could proceed. Its Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system, known as PABS, governs access to pathogens with pandemic potential and distribution of products developed from them, including vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments. Wealthy and developing nations remain divided over its implementation.
Tedros contrasted the speed of COVID-19 vaccine development with the inequity of their distribution. Although vaccines were produced in record time, many countries were left waiting while others secured supplies far beyond their needs.
Hans Kluge, WHO's regional director for Europe, said timely vaccine access and affordable medicines had repeatedly emerged as concerns in his meetings across all six WHO regions. In a post on X, he advocated a system that combines rapid sharing of pathogen samples and data with equitable access to the resulting vaccines, tests, and treatments. He warned against repeating the inequalities witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
