Negotiating a global pandemic agreement with 194 countries in a year’s time is an ambitious task, but a U.S. official involved in the negotiations said it’s important to wrap them up “sooner rather than later.”
“Obviously, we don't want the process to feel rushed and incomplete. But there's something to be said about momentum, and already as you can imagine … people are tired of talking about this pandemic, let alone any pandemic,” Loyce Pace, assistant secretary in the Office of Global Affairs for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, said Thursday during a Devex event on the sidelines of the 76th World Health Assembly.
While it’s ambitious, Pace said they’re committed to the timeline of May 2024 for the accord, saying it’s important not to “lose ground and energy, in particular political energy.”
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
