Nations fail to agree over 1st ever pandemic agreement; Covid erases decade of progress in life expectancy

In response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO Member States have concluded intensive negotiations to boost global capacities for future pandemics, however, the countries failed to reach a consensus and had some 'divergent views'. The member stateswill now submit the outcomes of the discussions for consideration by the upcoming World Health Assembly scheduled to kick offon Monday (May 27).

As the world grappled with the multifaceted challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, one glaring issue stood out - vaccine inequity. Despite the scientific achievement of developing multiple vaccines in record time, access to these life-saving doses remains vastly unequal across the globe, deepening the disparities in health outcomes between wealthy and low-income nations.

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"Two parallel negotiation processes were undertaken to make a series of amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) and to develop a first-ever pandemic agreement, convention or other legal instrument," WHO said.

“The world must not take its focus off the job at hand, which is to ensure the world is better protected from the next pandemic. This will require continuous commitment and action from all parties to build the world’s collective defenses," said Precious Matsoso, co-chair of South Africa.

Decade of progress undone

The COVID-19 pandemic has undone nearly a decade of progress in global life expectancy, according to the latest edition of the World Health Statistics released by the World Health Organization (WHO). A report, unveiled on Friday (May 24), highlighted the setbacks experienced between 2019 and 2021, where life expectancy at birth dropped by 1.8 years to 71.4 years, reverting to levels last seen in 2012.

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Similarly, healthy life expectancy (HALE) decreased by 1.5 years to 61.9 years. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted, "In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic erased a decade of gains in life expectancy. That's why the new Pandemic Agreement is so important: not only to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and between countries.”

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The Americas and South-East Asia saw the most decline, with life expectancy falling by approximately three years and healthy life expectancy by 2.5 years. In contrast, the Western Pacific Region experienced minimal impact, with losses of less than 0.1 years in life expectancy and 0.2 years in HALE.

COVID-19 quickly became a leading cause of death worldwide, ranking third in 2020 and second in 2021, resulting in nearly 13 million deaths over two years.

(With inputs from agencies)