New York, June 15, 2026 – Global efforts to strengthen preparedness for future health emergencies have received renewed momentum as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Brazilian government urged countries to complete negotiations on a landmark pandemic agreement.
The appeal was contained in a joint message released on Monday by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In the letter, both leaders stressed the collective responsibility of nations to ensure the world never experiences the scale of devastation witnessed during the COVID-19 crisis.
They noted that the pandemic resulted in the loss of as many as 20 million lives worldwide and caused an estimated $13 trillion decline in global economic activity.
The leaders recalled how health systems were stretched beyond capacity, countless families were separated from loved ones during their final moments, and healthcare workers faced extraordinary challenges while battling the outbreak.
According to them, those painful experiences inspired a global commitment to improve cooperation and readiness for future disease outbreaks.
They pointed out that member states took a major step forward more than a year ago when they endorsed the WHO Pandemic Agreement, designed to enhance international collaboration in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Describing the achievement as significant, they said reaching consensus on the agreement demonstrated that countries could still work together despite growing divisions across the world.
However, they warned that one critical component of the framework—the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex—remains unresolved.
The annex is intended to establish a system that allows countries to rapidly share information on emerging pathogens, enabling researchers and scientists to develop diagnostic tools, medicines and vaccines more efficiently.
Without the completion of that section, the broader Pandemic Agreement cannot officially take effect, leaving a key global health objective unfinished.
The statement acknowledged that negotiations surrounding the PABS annex have been challenging, particularly regarding how benefits derived from shared pathogen data should be distributed fairly among countries and how oversight mechanisms should operate.
The leaders argued that unresolved issues of equity and access contributed to shortcomings during the COVID-19 response and must be addressed to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Negotiators are expected to reconvene between July 6 and July 17 in a fresh effort to bridge remaining differences and move the agreement closer to implementation, a step many health experts consider crucial for strengthening global readiness against future pandemics.