Tehran (IP) - The Joint Plan of Action of 26 countries to combat pandemics was discussed in the regional meeting of the Health Ministers for the Eastern Mediterranean countries on Wednesday.

Iran PressIran News:  In this meeting which was held through video conference, Iran’s health minister, Saeed Namaki as a keynote speaker, said that the session on “Treaty on Pandemic Preparedness and Response” is the first amongst the Regions. 

He added that the world witnessed unprecedented dynamics with the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasized the importance of transparent and well-integrated surveillance systems, data sharing, inter-sectoral collaboration, border protocols, and global mechanisms to secure equity in access to pharmaceuticals, vaccines, APIs, advanced diagnostics such as NGS, medical equipment and other necessities.

Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) promoted the level of fighting COVID in different ways but failed to achieve equal access to public goods, he referred.

To foster the ‘Whole of the Government,’ ‘Whole of the Society’ approach, strengthen local, national, regional, and global capacities, and particularly to build resilient health systems, we need better collaborations to combat future pandemics, Namaki stated.

He went on to say that Iran has eight suggestions as following:

1) No one would challenge the need, or at least the usefulness, of enhanced international cooperation for preventing and combating another Covid pandemic. We should, then, use this unprecedented momentum to equip the world with better apparatus to avoid another similar catastrophe as we are witnessing today;

2)    The 16 months long Covid pandemic revealed our systemic weaknesses and vulnerabilities and the huge cost incurred. We need to collectively identify them based on scientific data and free from any prejudices;

3)    An international treaty to deal with future pandemics could prove to functionally proficient if its provisions were fine-tuned to reflect an honest and pragmatic recount of the lessons learned during the current pandemic;

4)    It should also address the underlying factors and enabling elements that could turn a highly contagious virus into a global scale pandemic with exponential human losses and material consequences. The ever increasing ‘inequality’ between the North and the South in terms of economy, technology, and especially health care deserve maximum attention in this regard;

5)    An international treaty to address the future pandemics should build upon the existing IHR to enhance effective, coordinated, and timely response to pandemics at early stages. This requires certain mechanisms to invoke early warning. I should hasten to stress that the IHR should be the point of departure for any idea to craft a new international instrument;

6)    Diagnosis, treatment, and medication should constitute a part and parcel of any such international instrument. We need to ensure that the IP related aspects of health commodities, including diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines, should not become an obstacle to save lives and curb the pandemics during such emergencies;

7)     An international treaty to better handle future pandemics should make its mission a ‘human’ one. Human solidarity and sympathy are the core of our collective endeavor to relieve human pain and suffering brought upon us by contagious diseases. Any policy or action that contradicts this human cause should be deplored by word and sanctioned by deed.

An international treaty aimed at enhancing cooperation and coordination to respond to pandemics could not ignore the extremely negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on effective international cooperation as well as on the normal functioning of the targeted States in serving their affected population;

8)    Last but not least, we need ‘one health’ through a strong, united, and strengthened WHO at all three levels.

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