Dr Andrew Old Warns of Future Pandemics at World Health Assembly

"Mr President, Director General, Esteemed Ministers, Colleagues, tena kotou katoa, warm greetings to you all.

This week we will deliberate on a range of topics that emphasise the ongoing challenges to safeguarding our populations from infectious and non-communicable diseases to enhance health and wellbeing. New Zealand notes the conclusion of negotiations on a draft pandemic treaty. New Zealand supports the aim of strengthening global health systems to improve pandemic preparedness and response. This will also help New Zealand to support our Pacific partners to better manage future pandemic responses in our region.

New Zealand will subject the treaty in due course to a national interest test before deciding whether or not to sign and ratify it. This week we will also review WHO’s program budget for the next two years. New Zealand continues to support the principle of sustainable financing and urges WHO to continue to engage with member states on its reforms to enhance coordination, reduce inefficiencies and deliver value.

Challenging times provide an opportunity to focus on what is most important for the health and wellbeing of our populations. New Zealand is progressing an ambitious direction for health focused on five priorities:
Delivering the basics and achieving targets
Better access to primary health care
Reducing wait times for emergency care
Partnering with the private sector to deliver more planned care
Investing in our health infrastructure

Now more than ever our national efforts need to be coupled with a commitment to work together to address health issues of common concern, including those related to global conflicts. Around the world, including in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, conflicts are pushing health systems into states of crisis. We reiterate our calls for all parties to comply with international and humanitarian law.

This year’s theme of One World for Health can only be realised if the global community can benefit from the participation of all health communities including Taiwan.

We look forward to a week of collectively focusing on core priorities and renewing our shared commitment to an equitable, sustainable and resilient global health system.

No reira, tena kotou, tena kotou, tena kotou katoa.
Thank you."

A day or two after this speech Dr Old voted for New Zealand to increase contributions to the World Health Organization by 20%. Do you know how much New Zealand commits to the World Health Organization? Please share any information you have on this matter for our media team to further investigate.

Dr Old's speech was recorded from around 5 hours 15 minutes at this video:
https://rumble.com/v6tlcgn-who-watch-78th-world-health-assembly-meeting-continued.html?e9s=src_v1_upp