WHO chief 'not worried' about US bilateral deals affecting pandemic treaty

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief said on Thursday that he was hopeful an annex to a pandemic treaty would be adopted next year, saying that he did not see bilateral negotiations between the United States and African states as a threat.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a press briefing in Geneva he was “hopeful” that a deal on an annex covering the sharing of pathogenic information could be finalised before a major WHO summit in May 2026.

“Bilateral agreements are no problem to be honest. It doesn’t affect (the annex) and I’m not worried,” he told the ACANU press briefing.

The U.S. signed a new five-year agreement with Kenya earlier this month under an ‘America First’ global health plan.

Health experts have voiced concerns that such deals would bypass the WHO and even derail the ongoing negotiations.

At the same press briefing, Tedros voiced concerns that deep cuts to donors’ foreign spending on health would soon hit childhood mortality.

“Early estimates are indicating that childhood mortality could increase for the first time this century,” he said, without giving a projection.

But he voiced optimism about the U.N. health agency’s financial future, saying he was confident that a $1 billion budget cut could be filled. “Our standing is very good,” he said.

Trump orders US exit from the World Health Organization

Earlier in 21 January, 2025, U.S president Donald Trump has announced that the United States will leave the World Health Organization, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S. that were disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.

“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing of an executive order on the withdrawal, shortly after his inauguration to a second term.