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UN tries to build momentum on pandemic preparedness, but hits a speed bump · Best of: Features

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  UN tries to build momentum on pandemic preparedness but hits a speed
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  bump. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlett. New York, the AP Six years after COVID
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  nineteen forced the UN General Assembly's annual meeting of world leaders to
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  go virtual for the first time ever, pandemics no longer dominate the
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  conversation at the global gathering. Wars, natural disasters, geopolitical polarization, and this
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  year's hot button worry, artificial intelligence have seized attention. But the General
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  Assembly's leader and health officials sought Friday to make sure that the
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  lurking possibility of another world wide disease emergency stays on the agenda.
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  COVID, nineteen sometimes, feels like a fever dream of lockdowns, overwhelmed hospitals,
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  shuttered schools, economic disruption, personal tragedies and Zoom calls. General Assembly President
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  Khalila Riemann said as he opened a day long meeting on pandemic
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  preparedness, prevention, and response. He recalled his own sleepless nights when his
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  daughter, a physician, treated coronavirus patients during the crisis. Sometimes it is
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  easier to pretend that it never happened, Rahman said, but we cannot
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  erase COVID nineteen from our memories. Quite the opposite. We have to
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  take a hard look at that period, at where we succeeded and
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  where we failed. It's all the more important at a time when
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  history's fastest growing Ebola outbreak is spreading in Congo, he noted. Since
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  the depths of they coronavirus pandemic, various new international funds, collaboratives, scientific
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  programs, and agreements have arisen to tackle pandemic threats better, but the
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  international community is navigating divides about The
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  issue, and The were clear Friday when countries couldn't reach consensus on
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  a declaration that was intended to cap them.
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  Special pandemic meeting. Ruffman said General Assembly members would consider the document
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  in future. The draft declaration obtained by the Associated Press reiterates an
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  intent to scale up preparedness and improve coordination within countries and among
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  them. The document calls for enhancing financing, boosting lab capacity, and promoting
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  increased medication and vaccine access. Other provisions of the wide ranging draft
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  endorse trying to counter vaccine, hesitancy, and health related misinformation, making all
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  policies gender equal and ensuring universal access to family planning and sexual
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  health services by twenty thirty. Proponents said the proposed document would improve
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  much needed collaboration, risk monitoring, and preparedness for a threat that doesn't
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  stop at any one country's borders. That declaration can help the world
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  move forward, said former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, co chair
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  of Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, a group created after
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  COVID nineteen emerged. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adonom Gabriesis
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  said at a news conference that the document includes important commitments to
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  concrete, measurable, and urgent action to address gaps. Countries from South Korea
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  to Cape Verde to Guatemala expressed support for the declaration, facilitated by
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  Armenia and Rwanda. It's an expression of solidarity and international cooperation, said
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  Burundian Foreign Minister Eduard Bizimana, speaking on behalf of a group of
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  African nations. A Caribbean Countries Association also backed the document. But it
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  fell flat with some other nations. In statements during Friday's multipart meeting,
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  the European Union said That
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  the document didn't do enough to foster financing accountability and efficiency, among
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  other complaints. Germany called for a stronger focus on prevention. The US
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  objected to mentions of divisive ideologies, and of a prospective separate arrangement
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  for countries to share virus samples, and in turn get tests, medicines,
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  and vaccines. That potential deal is under negotiations as a follow on
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  to a pandemic agreement that WHO member countries approved last year. The
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  United States has withdrawn from the World Health Organization and wasn't part
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  of finalizing the pandemic treaty.