It’s been over four years since the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world. The word “unprecedented” has almost become a cliché to describe those months and years, but we really didn’t know what to expect, which is why so many federal, state, and local governments placed their trust in unelected bureaucrats to dictate policy.
Republican states were the first to emerge from this madness. Georgia was the first state to lift COVID restrictions, and Florida followed quickly after. Yet we still see so many people living in fear of COVID, closing schools for a few cases, wearing masks, and pushing other ineffective protocols.
The World Health Organization (WHO) set up an organization to try to develop an international pandemic prevention protocol. From its website:
In December 2021, at its second-ever special session, the World Health Assembly established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement, or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The INB’s work is based on the principles of inclusiveness, transparency, efficiency, Member State leadership, and consensus.
Of course, the Biden-Harris administration was eager to cede national authority to globalist bureaucrats, so it began working with the WHO to draft an agreement to cooperate on whatever the next pandemic might be. The WHO Pandemic Agreement, which is in its second edition as of 2023, not only places large portions of U.S. health policy in the hands of an international organization (including calls for “Equity” and “Inclusiveness” in pandemic response) but also ignores the 10th Amendment and the rights of states to determine certain policies under the Constitution.
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The Republican Governors Association is swinging hard against this violation of national sovereignty and federalism. In May, 24 GOP governors signed a letter expressing their disagreement with the notion of a pandemic treaty.
The letter reads in part:
The objective of these instruments is to empower the WHO, particularly its uncontrollable Director-General, with the authority to restrict the rights of U.S. citizens, including freedoms such as speech, privacy, travel, choice of medical care, and informed consent, thus violating our Constitution’s core principles.
If adopted, these agreements would seek to elevate the WHO from an advisory body to a global authority in public health. Under the proposed amendments and treaty, the WHO’s Director-General would supposedly gain unilateral power to declare a "public health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC) in member nations, extending beyond pandemics to include a range of perceived emergencies.
“As governors, we affirm that public health policy is a matter reserved for the states, not the federal government, and certainly not international bodies like the WHO,” the governors conclude in the letter. “We are committed to resisting any attempts to transfer authority to the WHO over public policy affecting our citizens or any efforts by the WHO to assert such authority over them.”
On Thursday, Republican governors issued a statement saying that they refuse to go along with placing their states’ authority under the WHO. Two more governors joined the 24 who signed the letter, bringing the total to 26 — that’s right, over half of the states.
“The World Health Organization is attempting one world control over health policy with their new ‘Pandemic Agreement,’” the statement reads. “Twenty-four Republican Governors expressed concern over this development in a joint letter in May 2024. Put simply, Republican Governors will not comply.”
Govs. Kay Ivey (Ala.), Mike Dunleavy (Alaska), Sarah Sanders (Ark.), Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Brian Kemp (Ga.), Brad Little (Idaho), Eric Holcomb (Ind.), Kim Reynolds (Iowa), Jeff Landry (La.), Tate Reeves (Miss.), Mike Parson (Mo.), Greg Gianforte (Mont.), Jim Pillen (Neb.), Joe Lombardo (Nev.), Chris Sununu (N.H.), Doug Burgum (N.D.), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Kevin Stitt (Okla.), Henry McMaster (S.C.), Kristi Noem (S.D.), Bill Lee (Tenn.), Greg Abbott (Texas), Spencer Cox (Utah), Glenn Youngkin (Va.), Jim Justice (W.Va.), and Mark Gordon (Wyo.) signed onto the statement. Residents of these states should be grateful to their governors for showing leadership and insisting on the sovereignty of U.S. and state policy.
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