Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last December, the World Health Assembly established an intergovernmental negotiating body to draft a new convention on pandemic prevention and preparedness. At its fourth meeting last month, the negotiating body accepted a draft of this new convention that would give the World Health Organization broad new powers in managing future pandemics. If accepted, it would cement the World Health Organization at the center of a global system for managing future pandemics, and it would erode U.S. sovereignty. Let me just list a few of the examples of some of the provisions of this draft--and I will call it a treaty. Currently, it would require a substantial new U.S. financial commitment to an international body without proportional voting power. It would require the U.S. to give the World Health Organization 20 percent of vaccines and other pandemic-related products produced during future pandemics. It includes a heavy emphasis on the transfer of intellectual property rights to the World Health Organization. It gives the World Health Organization a leading role in fighting misinformation and disinformation, and as the Twitter files reveal, that leads to censorship and the suppression and abridging of freedom of speech. It also promotes a global one-health approach to healthcare, including harmonizing regulation under WHO guidance. The WHO has not earned this power--far from it.…”