In an effort to align all nations of the world with its public health policies, the WHO is drafting a “pandemic treaty,” which will achieve the status of law once it is approved and ratified by national mechanisms. In the US, that means a 2/3 approval by the Senate, followed by an official signing of the treaty by the President.
However, the schedule to allow stakeholder (NGO) and other input on a proposed pandemic treaty has apparently fallen under the guillotine, as the WHO is cancelling the second round of public input, scheduled for June 16-17.
As of today, this appeared on the webpage for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, which was established by the WHO in late 2021 to facilitate the drafting of a pandemic treaty.
It appears that the first round of input was disastrous, as far as the WHO’s intent pursuant to this proposed treaty. According to James Roguski, a writer who has been focusing on pandemic issues, this is due to the overwhelmingly negative public response to the very idea of a pandemic treaty. He reports that
1. There were 36,294 written submissions made via the dedicated online portal on the WHO website during the public hearings. In due course, those written submissions will be uploaded and archived on the WHO public hearings webpage.
2. The majority of written contributions proposed that no international instrument should be established.
In addition, the first round of hearings, which took place in April, featured a number of spoken contributions, which are archived here.
These spoken contributions also reflected a general disinclination on the part of the contributors to endorse a treaty which would effectively strip sovereign nations of their health sovereignty.
Writing for the Washington Post, Adam Taylor attempted to dismiss such concerns as products of paranoia. In an article titled, “Global health talks clouded by conspiracy theories about pandemic treaty,” Taylor states that global leaders are facing
“… another viral problem: a visceral, passionate online backlash that falsely accuses the World Health Organization of conspiring to take power from national governments.”
Full article: The WHO Cancels Public Comment on Proposed Pandemic Treaty