23 countries and the WHO are calling for a treaty to prepare the world for future pandemics

<p><img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/6063179567187800184ad3dc-2000/GettyImages-1212206095.jpg" border="0" alt="Brazil coronavirus" data-mce-source="Buda Mendes/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Relatives of Neide Rodrigues, 71, who died of COVID-19, mourn in May 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>The leaders of 23 countries and the World Health Organization are calling for a global treaty to prepare the world for future pandemics.</p><p>The treaty would be aimed at countries sharing helpful information as well as ensuring universal vaccine access and medicines, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BM009">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Diplomats told Reuters that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, has endorsed the idea.</p><p>Formal negotiations to actually create such a treaty hasn't started, Reuters reported, but the heads of 23 countries have cosigned a joint opinion piece published in major newspapers saying that they supported its creation.</p><p>"There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies," they said in the letter, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/29/no-government-can-address-threat-pandemics-alone-must-come/">which you can read here</a>. "No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat alone."</p><p>"We believe that nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response."</p><p>The leaders of China and the US, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, did not sign the joint letter, but Reuters reported the WHO as saying that they had reacted positively to the idea.</p><p>It was signed by the heads of of Fiji, Portugal, Romania, Britain, Rwanda, Kenya, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Chile, Costa Rica, Albania, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Senegal, Spain, Norway, Serbia, Indonesia, and Ukraine, as well as the WHO.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-23-countries-support-treaty-prepare-future-pandemics-2021-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-modest-home-bought-31500-looks-2017-6">Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth .001% of his total wealth</a></p>
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