A group of 22 state attorneys general (AGs) on Wednesday told President Joe Biden they oppose the federal government’s plans to grant the World Health Organization (WHO) greater powers in response to the COVID
“We will resist any attempt to enable the WHO to directly or indirectly set public policy for our citizens,” the AGs wrote in a letter organized by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
The WHO will discuss drafts of its proposed pandemic agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) at the upcoming World Health Assembly, May 27 to June 1. The proposals aim to give the WHO more authority to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics.
The AGs argued that the proposed amendments would “transform the WHO from an advisory, charitable organization into the world’s governor of public health.”
They emphasized that the WHO lacks the authority to enforce its recommendations and that the U.S. Constitution reserves public health policy powers for the states, not the federal government.
They also said the amendments could pave the way for a “global surveillance infrastructure” because they ask the member states who sign the agreements to “cooperate, in accordance with national law, in preventing misinformation and disinformation.”
“This is particularly dangerous given that your administration pressured and encouraged social-media companies to suppress free speech during COVID-19,” the AGs stated.
This news comes after 49 U.S. Senators last week urged Biden to reject the WHO proposals and made it clear they would vote against them.
The U.K. government also announced on Wednesday it would not sign the WHO pandemic accord unless the agreement respected the U.K.’s national interests and sovereignty.
“This is HUGE!” wrote Dr. Meryl Nass in her Substack post, “22 Attorneys-General in the US have told Joe Biden that the WHO will not be making public policy in their states!”
Nass, a prominent critic of the proposed WHO amendments and founder of the Door to Freedom website, expressed gratitude for this outcome to those who called and wrote letters to their government representatives.
UK refuses to sign WHO pandemic treaty
The U.K. government has refused to sign the WHO’s pandemic accord, primarily objecting to the requirement to give away a fifth of its therapeutic resources during a pandemic, according to Reuters.
The WHO is currently negotiating a pandemic accord that, according to a draft, would ask wealthier nations to contribute more to assisting the global community during pandemics. This includes setting aside 20% of their tests, treatments and vaccines for the WHO to allocate to less affluent countries in times of crisis.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care said, “We will only support the adoption of the accord and accept it on behalf of the UK, if it is firmly in the UK national interest and respects national sovereignty.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for countries to agree to the accord within the deadline to help fight future pandemics, urging those who do not fully agree with the text to at least refrain from blocking consensus among the organization’s 194 member states.
Treaty would ‘enable more civil liberties violations’
The proposed amendments to the WHO’s pandemic response framework aim to give the organization more power to prevent, prepare and respond to future global pandemics. The amendments include changes to how communications, financing and oversight would be handled.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus believes the pandemic agreement could help create a more “equitable global response” to future pandemics, according to KFF, an independent health policy research nonprofit.
However, the 22 U.S. AGs argued that the proposed measures “would only exacerbate the WHO’s underlying problems and enable more civil liberties violations during future ’emergencies.’”
In a similar vein, the letter signed last week by 49 Republican senators called on Biden to withdraw his administration’s support for the two WHO proposals.
“The treaty focuses on mandated resource and technology transfers, shredding intellectual property rights [and] infringing free speech,” they wrote.
The senators argued that before considering the amendments, the administration should focus on developing a comprehensive set of reforms for the WHO, given its failures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They also insisted that Biden, should he continue to support the WHO proposal, submit the treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
AGs’ letter means ‘the Constitution still matters’
The AGs’ letter represents a significant assertion that “the Constitution still matters,” despite the growth of the administrative state in the executive branch, Nass told The Defender.
Nass said the Biden administration does not have the legal right to “turn over Americans’ healthcare to the WHO,” reiterating the AGs’ assertion that the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution grants states, not the federal government, the power to govern healthcare.
“Americans don’t want mandates,” she said. Given the high cost of healthcare, they “want to be able to choose what they receive” without “a Ph.D. in Geneva telling them what vaccines and drugs they must have — or won’t be allowed to have.”
Nass also suggested Americans are “sick and tired of being lied to,” with “WHO officials … still lying about what is actually in the two treaties being negotiated” and “three U.S. negotiators even lied to Congress about what was in them.”
Only when regulators are closer to home can “citizens make them accountable for telling lies,” which is “much harder when they are in Geneva or Washington,” she said.
“The entire pandemic preparedness agenda is built on a house of cards,” Nass said. “None of its assumptions stand up when submitted to scrutiny.”
Echoing the sentiment of the 22 attorneys general, Nass said, “This is not about public health, but rather about gaining ever greater control over the citizens of the world.”
While celebrating the significance of AGs’ letter, Nass emphasized the importance of stopping the amendments in the remaining 28 states.
She also urged support for two bills, H.R.1425 and S.444, which would require the WHO treaty and international health regulation amendments to be ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Nass called for grassroots efforts to ensure the bills gain the necessary support in Congress, particularly the House bill, which still needs two Democrat co-sponsors.
Sign up to watch Children’s Health Defense’s “WHO Roundtable: Exposing ‘Mission Critical For Humanity,” airing on Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.