DeSantis, GOP governors to ‘resist’ delegating health authority to WHO amid Geneva meeting
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis is among 24 Republican governors opposing President Joe Biden’s potential to sign the World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Agreement,” saying it would give the organization “unprecedented and unconstitutional powers” over the U.S.
The World Health Assembly takes place May 27-June 1 in Geneva, Switzerland, where the American president is worried to be intending on supporting and signing the agreement, per a late-2023 announcement by the U.S.
The agreement would reportedly “drive a more equitable global response” to pandemics and “enhance cooperation” between members states.
The letter, sent directly to Biden by the GOP governors, said the agreement, a “treaty” without two-thirds approval from the U.S. Senate, would “undermine national sovereignty, infringe upon states’ rights, and jeopardize constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.”
“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,” the governors said. “These agreements would seek to elevate the WHO from an advisory body to a global authority in public health.”
They pointed to a proposed element of the agreement that gives the WHO’s director-general “unilateral power” to declare a “public health emergency of international concern” within nations who join onto the agreement.
This, the governors said, delegates health policy direction from the U.S. as a sovereign state to the global body, “potentially including mandates regarding medical treatments.”
“Additional concerns arise regarding the establishment of a global surveillance infrastructure and requirements for member states to censor speech related to public health, potentially facilitating the proliferation of biological weapons,” they said.
“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 letter said. “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.”
Aside from Florida’s DeSantis, the other governors signed are from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Attorneys general also sent a letter to Biden earlier in May opposing giving the WHO such authority, including Florida’s Ashley Moody.
Both of Florida’s GOP senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, similarly called on the Biden administration to not cede sovereign power to the WHO at the beginning of May, with 47 other senators.
DeSantis gained national prominence out of the coronavirus pandemic with his opposition to health mandates, such as prolonged business lockdowns and vaccine or mask mandates.
