What is both fascinating and dumbfounding to me is that US lawmakers are commenting about the UN & WHO when they clearly have no concept of how these international agreements are created, structured and implemented. How can they be so uninformed on a topic and still expect to be taken seriously?
The WHO's Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Accord is being created in consultation with the 194 WHO member states and numerous international medical and disaster preparation bodies. The US gets an (outsized) voice in what goes into the agreement. The accord is also
voluntary. The US doesn't have to sign up to it unless it wants to.
And, the Biden administration can only sign up to the accord through Congress. The United States Constitution provides that the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties,
provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur" (
Article II, section 2). For instance, the US has signed but not ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, because it failed to pass a senate vote.
“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,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said.
The treaty isn't vague. It's very detailed. The draft agreement is 29 pages, and the annexes and addendums cover another 50 pages (almost 14,000 words). There are more than 200 additional pages of proposed changes/amendments being worked through.
