People from all over the world who care about the health of their nations are assembled in World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva for the annual World Health Assembly. This meeting is due to be momentous.

After three years of intensive negotiations, including a few very late-night sessions, 194 WHO member states reached a consensus last month on the final wording of a new global Pandemic Accord. It is due to be ratified this week.

Getting that many nations to agree on something as complicated and contentious as pandemic planning is borderline miraculous.

At the final negotiation session, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus and Dr Mike Ryan both wore green ties to mark the moment the entire text was ‘greened’. Negotiators and colleagues hugged, celebrating the end of a gruelling process and the beginning of a global commitment to pandemic preparedness.

Dr Ryan, who is now departing the WHO, played a crucial role in guiding the world, and Ireland, through the darkest days of covid-19. I often wonder what Ireland’s pandemic response might have been if the man from the WHO urging us to stay at home hadn’t been a Sligo man.

Irish people don’t always acquiesce to authority, but we listened to every word from Mike Ryan. He was one of our own.

The WHO estimates that around 14.9 million excess deaths occurred globally in 2020 and 2021 - both directly from covid-19 and indirectly due to the strain it placed on health systems.

Although we don’t like to talk about covid times anymore, these deaths underscore the importance of preparing for future........

© Evening Echo