Members of the World Health Organization reached a landmark agreement on Wednesday on how to learn from COVID-19, which killed millions of people in 2020-22, and prepare the world for future pandemics.

Members of the World Health Organization reached an agreement to prepare the world for future pandemics after more than three years of negotiations, the organization said early on Wednesday.

Rachael Crockett, of the advocacy group Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, described the draft pandemic treaty as “a product of compromise.” She said it contained strong provisions, but only if countries chose to implement them: “This could change what we saw in COVID, when some populations didn’t get access to what they needed.”