Elon Musk tweeted that “Countries should not cede authority to WHO,” and conservatives have joined him in sounding the alarm about proposed legal changes to the World Health Organization and its International Health Regulations (IHR).
The basic question is whether America should remain an integral part of the United Nations’ international health agency, given the new rules being proposed as well as a new WHO treaty. There are two main fears about the IHR’s new rules and the WHO treaty.
First, proposed changes to the International Health Regulations would convert recommendations into requirements. In May of 2024, 196 U.N. member nations will vote on the changes to the IHRs, with a simple majority required to approve them. At that point, each nation has 10 months to reject compliance with the changes. If a nation rejects the changes, it will still abide by the old rules.
Some conservatives who care about protecting national sovereignty see a danger in these updated IHRs, as they impose mandatory health and pandemic reporting, vaccinations, tracking, and more. These requirements would override national laws as well as state public health statutes.
Second, the new WHO pandemic treaty, also up for a vote in the U.N. in May 2024, would represent another assault on U.S. sovereignty and thus the self-governance of the American people.
Despite a false “fact-check” by The Associated Press that dismissed these concerns, page 23 of the proposed U.N. treaty says, “The Parties commit to … tackle false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation, including
