World Health Assembly hopes to reinforce pandemic preparedness after bold treaty project stalls Boston 25 News [Video]

GENEVA — (AP) — The World Health Organization opened its annual meeting on Monday with government ministers and other top envoys hoping to reinforce global preparedness for the next pandemic in the devastating wake of COVID-19.

But the most ambitious project, to adopt a pandemic “treaty,” has been shelved for now after 2 1/2 years of work failed to produce a draft that countries could unite behind by Friday, as originally hoped.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insists it’s not a failure, and acknowledged an “immense” task faced by negotiators on a “very ambitious timeline” — alluding to the many years it usually takes for U.N. countries to reach global treaties.

When diplomats, health officials and activists were still attempting to produce a draft pandemic treaty, he had predicted the assembly could be one of the most significant in WHO’s 76-year history. Not anymore.

“Of course, we all wish that we had been able …