Despite much lost sleep for members of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) this week, it is impossible for consensus on a pandemic agreement to be reached by the end of Friday (10 May), the last day of this final round of negotiations.
Various negotiators Health Policy Watch that they did not see how the deadline could be met, especially as on Thursday co-chair Precious Matsoso ruled out extending talks to the weekend, saying that member states needed to travel back to their countries.
The agreement was supposed to be presented to the World Health Assembly (WHA) which starts on 27 May, for ratification. But now that this will not happen, sources close to the process say that two possible scenarios are being discussed.
Special WHA?
The one is that the INB is extended by six months, and that a WHA special session (WHASS) is called for the end of the year to consider the pandemic agreement – as was the case in November 2021, when a WHASS agreed to embark on the pandemic agreement negotiations.
The second option is for the deadline to be pushed for a full year, with the agreement being presented to the 2025 WHA.