At the World Economic Forum in Davos, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus promoted the organization’s world pandemic treaty, which was drafted “to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” in the future. The goal is for all 194 Member States of WHO (including the United States) to sign the treaty by May.
‘Disease X’ is a placeholder for an unknown pathogen that could cause a global emergency.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 17, 2024
History has taught us that we must anticipate new threats. Failing to prepare leaves the world prepared to fail.
At #WEF24 today, I spoke about @WHO initiatives that are supporting… pic.twitter.com/M4uF44WYNj
According to a WHO statement, the treaty will enhance “international cooperation to improve, for example, alert systems, data-sharing, research and local, regional and global production and distribution of medical and public health countermeasures such as vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and personal protective equipment.”
While the Biden administration has been negotiating the terms of the global pandemic treaty, GOP critics claim it would give the WHO too much control over Americans during a future pandemic/health crisis.
MAGA U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) claimed: “The World Health Organization pandemic treaty is very vague, it affects our sovereignty, and it could be exploited to tell Americans what kind of health care they need in the event of a global pandemic.”
Illustrating further how far apart lawmakers — especially those in the America First camp — remain on the issue, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) also communicated her position on X: “I’m a hard NO on the WHO World Pandemic Treaty for Disease X.” Greene added: “And while we are at it, why don’t we tell all these other freaks to stop spraying stuff in our skies, stop messing with our food, and stop creating monster bio weapon viruses that will murder everyone.”
Note: In April 2020, when then-President Trump threatened to cut U.S. funding to the WHO (citing WHO’s ties with China), Tedros asked that the virus COVID-19 not be politicized. He said: “The focus of all political parties should be to save their people.”
Media briefing on #COVID19 with @DrTedros. #coronavirus https://t.co/ZKy3OjKgBl
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 8, 2020
As seen in the 2020 COVID-19 press conference above, Tedros urged governments to work together to fight the pandemic and cited the historic joint effort by the U.S. and the Soviet Union to fight smallpox during the Cold War as an example.
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