90-Second Read: WHO faces deadlock over pandemic treaty amid crisis over Hantavirus outbreak

For Vora, the outbreak's overlap with the diplomatic deadlock in Geneva is not merely symbolic. The Hantavirus outbreak has, however, triggered the International Health Regulations (IHR), the WHO's main instrument for managing cross-border alerts. We all know there will be another pandemic, and right now we are witnessing another worrying outbreak. The next day, health authorities reported several confirmed and suspected cases aboard the Arctic cruise ship MV Hondius, which had departed from Argentina.

The talks, however, again ended on 1 May without consensus, forcing yet another delay in the implementation of the pandemic treaty. Although Article 12 of the already approved pandemic treaty enshrines real‑time access to vaccines and treatments, the PABS must establish the mechanisms for sharing data on new pathogens without allowing the benefits to become concentrated once again in the hands of a few. Spain, he adds, has tried to play a mediating role to "move toward an operational agreement," even if that means accepting an annex less ambitious than the ideal, as long as it allows the pandemic treaty to be activated as soon as possible. As WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted last Thursday, the episode "shows why the international health regulations exist and how they work," providing a framework for notification and coordinated response.

The mechanism is supposed to be approved at the next WHO World Health Assembly, scheduled between May 18 and 23. Pedro Gullón, Spain's director‑general for Public Health and Health Equity and one of the country's negotiators, acknowledges that the deadlock reflects, "to simplify a lot", the divide between the global North and South. Kazatchkine also questions the extent to which the world is better prepared today for a new health crisis. Even so, both Gullón and Kazatchkine agree that the fact that no agreement has been reached on the annex does not necessarily mean the treaty is doomed.

As he and Kazatchkine both note, the main sticking points remain twofold: the scope of the system, which pathogens would fall under the mechanism, and how the benefits derived from their use would be distributed in concrete terms. In his view, despite some progress, this gap reflects a lack of sustained political leadership: "No one is clearly stating today that this is a global problem and that no one will be safe until everyone is safe," he warns.