Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi said in a call with analysts that the company had not received a letter, nor had it heard from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry (BIS) and Security, which enforces export controls.
after multiple rounds of tense negotiations.“The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our member states to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,” Tedros said in a statement.
“The agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats. It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during COVID-19,” he added.The agreement aims to better detect and combat pandemics by focusing on greater international coordination and surveillance and more equitable access to vaccines and treatments.The negotiations grew tense amid disagreements between wealthy and developing countries with the latter feeling cut off from access to vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Esperance Luvindao, Namibia’s health minister and chairwoman of a committee that paved the way for the agreement’s adoption, said COVID-19 inflicted huge costs “on lives, livelihoods and economies”.“We, as sovereign states, have resolved to join hands as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, front-line health workers and all others from the next pandemic,” Luvindao added. “It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.”
Effective without US support?
The US, traditionally the WHO’s top donor, was not part of the final stages of the agreement process after the Trump administrationVance made the speech after
“crypto capital of the planet”when he addressed the same Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, last year in the middle of the presidential campaign. The crypto industry, which felt unfairly attacked by former President Joe Biden’s administration, spent heavily to help Trump and pro-cryptocurrency lawmakers win election.
Vance praised how quickly the crypto industry was able to organise and influence US politics during last year’s elections, giving special credit to Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the billionaire founders of the crypto exchange Gemini.“You chose to speak up, and you chose to get involved, and I believe you changed the direct trajectory of our country because of it,” Vance told the crowd gathered at the Venetian Hotel.