Jonathan Alexandre, a senior counsel from international litigation nonprofit Liberty Counsel, says changes to the United Nations’ 2005 international health regulations (IHR) have been happening “under the radar” because they know people would object to the unconstitutionality of the changes.
The Biden administration’s proposed amendments to the IHR would further strengthen the WHO’s authority to declare public health emergencies and override U.S. governing bodies.
“They’ve done this undercover because they knew at any point, if you were to tell Americans, you’re ceding the authority to an international body that is unaccountable to the people, if the media, were to echo that message, certainly Americans would have no regard for this,” Alexandre said during a recent interview with NTD News Today. “And we ought not to have any regard for this international body (the WHO) that is not accountable to us.”
The Biden administration proposed thirteen amendments to the IHR, that, if passed, would alter international public health rules—including expanding the powers given to the WHO Director-General to declare a public health emergency, bypassing U.S. governmental bodies.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs Loyce Pace defended the amendments during remarks given virtually to the 150th Session of the Executive Board at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland about pandemic preparedness in January 2022.
“The United States led an inclusive and transparent process to develop this decision, as we are mindful that updating and modernizing the IHR are critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to the next pandemic,” said Pace.
However, Alexandre said the 13 amendments submitted by the administration are shameful and dangerous. “The shameful part is that it’s coming from our president, the fact that Joe Biden has proposed these 13 amendments,” said Alexandre.
“The danger in it is that it’s ceding control over to this government entity that is not the United States, and the unconstitutional part is that they don’t abide by any of our Bill of Rights, any of the freedoms that we’ve committed ourselves to,” he said, adding that the WHO is “an unelected body that is determined for whatever cause is necessary to basically put the world on a chokehold, have it follow its dictates, depending on what threat or pandemic it deems at the moment to be necessary in order to lock down the entire world.”
The Biden administration in past statements has denied that the IHR amendments would weaken U.S. sovereignty.
While Biden administration officials say that they support a separate document, which some are calling a Pandemic Treaty, they are also advocating for amendments to the IHR as a faster way of overcoming the “weaknesses in global health security.”
“Immediate steps” could be taken by changing the IHR to improve certain areas, “particularly around early warning systems, coordinating the response, and information sharing,” wrote Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, in an opinion piece published in JAMA on Aug. 31, 2021.
Alexandre said these amendments give the WHO, and specifically its director-general, the power to bypass “any governmental authority within the United States.
This is an excerpt from The Epoch Times.
