Biden’s Pandemic Agreement Empowers WHO, China

Congressional Republicans are calling on President Joe Biden to desert plans for a pandemic treaty that will strengthen the World Health Organization, citing that world physique’s quite a few failures through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., backed by about half of all Senate Republicans, signed a letter to Biden urging him to withdraw from two agreements with the World Health Organization that will increase its authority to declare public well being emergencies and provides it new powers over the U.S. and 193 different member states throughout such emergencies. 

The letter to the president from Senate Republicans additionally asks that he submit any such pandemic settlement with WHO—criticized for going straightforward on China throughout COVID-19—to the Senate for ratification. 

“China has far too much control over the WHO. We certainly don’t want the WHO to control our individual health decisions,” Johnson mentioned at a press convention Thursday exterior the Capitol, flanked by a number of House Republicans and different conservative leaders. 

“I have a bill that would deem any agreement between the Biden administration and the WHO a treaty to come before the Senate for debate and ratification. That is absolutely crucial,” Johnson mentioned. 

The Biden administration appears to commit the United States to the brand new world pandemic preparedness settlement, in addition to to revised guidelines throughout the International Health Regulations adopted in 2005. 

The present guidelines enable the World Health Organization, with the consent of member nations, to declare a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.” The modification will enable WHO to take action over the objection of member nations. 

Even if the Biden administration tries to commit the United States to the settlement May 27 on the World Health Assembly —absent Senate ratification—at a minimal Congress can be sure that it doesn’t go unnoticed, mentioned Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

“We are going to expose it. They needed four months to get the amendments out there that are going to be considered on May 27,” Norman instructed The Daily Signal as audio system took questions. “That’s unacceptable. I’ve seen too many documents at the last minute. This is too important to let this go by.”

Norman added that he’s calling on Biden to be clear with Americans in regards to the pandemic agreements.  

“What I will ask him to do, and it will fall on deaf ears, is to show the American people exactly what you are submitting America to,” Norman mentioned. “Show us the fine print. Ladies and gentlemen, the devil is in the details of almost everything that my colleagues and I have to deal with. So exposure is what we can do right now, and he can lead the way as the leader of the free world. Do I think he will do it? No.”

Earlier this month, the White House launched a Global Health Security Strategy that claims partially: 

The United States is supporting efforts to strengthen world insurance policies and authorized preparedness, together with negotiating a pandemic settlement and focused amendments to the IHR [International Health Regulations], as these two devices have the potential to supply the worldwide neighborhood with the chance to ascertain a shared path ahead for stopping, getting ready for, and responding to worldwide well being emergencies.

Nations that belong to the World Health Organization agreed in November 2021 to barter and draft an settlement primarily based on WHO’s structure to strengthen pandemic prevention, in accordance with the White House. 

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on world well being, world human rights and worldwide organizations, additionally spoke on the press convention. 

“It remains unclear whether the Biden administration intends to submit this treaty agreement to the Senate for its constitutionally required advice and consent as a prerequisite for ratification,” Smith mentioned. “An executive agreement bypassing Senate ratification would be an egregious mistake.”

In January 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations that will allow WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to declare a public well being emergency in any member nation–even over the objections of a member nation. 

“Every single day you wake up and say to yourself, ‘Well, what more can it be? I can’t believe what just happened,’” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., mentioned on the press convention. 

“They can’t do anything else,” Perry mentioned, referring to the Biden administration. “As bad as it is in dealing with this government taking away our rights every single day, just imagine how difficult it is going to be to drag our rights back away from some international organization of bureaucrats that aren’t even elected, that don’t care about America, that don’t care about our Constitution and don’t care about what we think.”

The change might present unilateral authority to WHO’s Tedros to declare a public well being disaster within the United States or different international locations, with out session.

The proposed modifications to the International Health Regulations would cede management to World Health Organization “regional directors.” The regional administrators would have authority to declare most of these emergencies, and WHO’s chief might concern an “intermediate public health alert.” The settlement additionally consists of methods to control information a few pandemic. 

The World Health Organization lined up for the Chinese Communist Party firstly of the COVID-19 outbreak and may have much less energy, mentioned Jenny Beth Martin, president of Tea Party Patriots Action. 

“There is not a single one-size-fits-all solution to health care in America. There is certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution to health care around the entire world,” Martin mentioned on the press convention. 

“What we saw during COVID, as states were able to compete with one another and show the differences in their policies, we saw which policies work the best,” she mentioned. “If we wind up having a one-size-fits-all solution for the entire world, we may never know the solution that actually is the best.”

WHO got here beneath withering criticism for its dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly for failing to ship a workforce to China through the preliminary unfold of the coronavirus that causes the illness, as required by the prevailing International Health Regulations.

Under the proposed settlement, the U.S. and different member nations would supply monetary help to growing international locations. Critics observe that the United Nations continues to categorise China as a growing nation regardless of its giant financial system. 

Other provisions of the pandemic treaty would promote “sustainable and geographically diversified production” of vaccines and different pandemic-related merchandise and require spending for analysis in growing international locations. 

The settlement would set up a WHO Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network with worldwide necessities for manufacturing and exporting pandemic-related merchandise. It would create a brand new place known as the “secretariat for the WHO pandemic agreement.”

In the previous, the World Health Organization and the United Nations have labored towards the pursuits of the United States, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, mentioned. 

“This agreement would subject the United States to the powers of the World Health Organization without going through what we need to do in the Senate, without the people’s representatives having a voice and ceding our sovereignty to these enemies who are undermining our national security and the interests of the United States,” Roy mentioned.

The Texas Republican later added: “When are we going to stop funding the organizations that are undermining our freedom?”

The White House didn’t reply to The Daily Signal’s request for remark for this report.