Topic:
Country: Argentina
Delegate Name: Eddie Wuerthele
Committee: World Health Organization
Topic: Pandemic Preparation
Country: Argentine Republic
Delegate: Eddie Wuerthele
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Since the end of the 1800s, there have been 7 Major Pandemics that have affected large parts of the World, the most recent being COVID-19. Some regions become more affected by pandemics due to their population and the environment. The treatment countries received, including vaccines, unfortunately greatly depended on how much access countries had to the supplies, and whether they could afford it or not. The effect of this was that nearly 7 million people died of COVID-19, many of which because they were unable to get vaccinated.
Argentina strongly believes that strict pandemic preparation is vital to the wellbeing of all its citizens. When COVID-19 hit, Argentina acted rapidly and decisively to implement protocols to keep its citizens safe, and to prevent a surge in cases of the disease. On March 3rd 2020, Argentina had their first COVID case. On March 19th, only 16 days after that, Argentina had a national lockdown to prevent the traveling in and out of the country. The lockdown lasted until July 17th, that same year. A second lockdown took place in 2021 for 10 days starting May 22, due to a spike in COVID cases.
Argentina has put full support towards the UN Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, which advocated for pandemic product availability in all countries, and for said products to be distributed both quickly and evenly among regions. The Argentine Republic supports this because collaboration is imperative in order to stop the spread and turmoil of pandemics.
Funding must be brought to low-income countries so that they do not suffer. Argentina has been working to allow resources to expand to such countries.
The delegation of Argentina proposes that all countries follow a specific plan to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens should another pandemic strike . Step 1 includes having strong governmental leadership that can act quickly and can consult with public health experts, trade unions, governors, among other figures of higher stature. In Step 2, Countries should use an evidence-based approach and work together with the WHO while also keeping in mind the technological abilities of their own. In Step 3, countries need to keep effective communication with the public in order for them to stay cooperative with the government. In Step 4, Social Protective Measures should be implemented to help the demographic of the most vulnerable populations and prevent social tensions. And finally, in Step 5, countries must be willing to adapt to circumstance that arise. These steps are a major reason why the Argentine Population was so cooperative with the government when COVID-19 hit the region. Argentina believes that transparency is a requisite for dealing with pandemics and would be more than willing to work together with other nations to come up with ingenious solutions to curtail the effects that pandemics cause.
