WASHINGTON: "Amid growing concerns over the new omicron COVID-19 variant, the Biden administration is supporting efforts by the World Health Organization to establish a new international agreement on future pandemic preparedness and response. The U.S. had initially opposed the inclusion of language that would have made the so-called pandemic treaty, proposed by about two dozen world leaders in March, legally binding. But on Sunday, the administration supported a draft resolution that is being negotiated at a three-day virtual special session of the WHO governing body, the World Health Assembly, beginning Monday. The pandemic treaty is expected to be ready in May 2024. Some public health experts are pessimistic of the outcome.
"The prognosis is still quite poor that we're going to get to a legally binding treaty that the U.S. and every other country of substance in the world accepts in the coming two or even three years," Krishna Udayakumar, founding director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University, told VOA.
The agreement would cover issues such as the sharing of data and genome sequences of emerging viruses, and of any potential vaccines and drugs derived from research."
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-supports-creation-of-global-pandemic-treaty-/6334602.html