WHO: Swiss president urges world to ‘remain vigilant’ as pandemic ends

This is the first World Health Assembly since the WHO declared the end to the pandemic. © Keystone/gabriel Monnet

Swiss president Alain Berset opened the 76^th World Health Assembly in Geneva, praising progress made to end the pandemic while calling on the world to stay vigilant.

“We have worked together to overcome this difficult ordeal,” said Berset in a speech to representatives of most of the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) who are meeting in Geneva from May 21-30. 

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“When we have a strong common will to move forward, we can succeed,” he said. On May 5 the WHO announced that Covid-19 is no longer a “public health emergency of international concern”.

Berset also called on WHO members to advance discussions on a pandemic treaty and amendments to the International Health Regulations.

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wants a pandemic treaty to be concluded by May 2024, which many diplomats say will be very difficult given the number of sticking points including the definition of a pandemic, intellectual property rules, financing and compliance arrangements.

The first draft of the agreement included easing intellectual property restrictions to ensure equitable access to vaccines and therapies. Switzerland, which has a large pharmaceutical industry, is among a group of countries that opposes such a move.

WHO future

Berset also emphasised the importance of the WHO, which celebrates its 75th anniversary, to enable multilateral cooperation to tackle global health crises.

A key part of that is sustainable financing of the WHO, he added. He described a resolution passed last year to reform financing the WHO as “historic”. WHO members will discuss how to increase the mandatory contributions to the WHO, which current makes up only a small portion of the funding. Most funding is voluntary, which allows states to decide what they will be used for and makes it challenging to deal with pandemic prevention and response.

Switzerland has been nominated for a seat on the WHO Executive Board for a three-year team, joining 33 other member states. The term would start in May.