Family Research Council (FRC) has submitted a formal comment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expressing concerns about the World Health Organization’s (WHO) proposed Pandemic Preparedness Agreement. The organization argues that the agreement could undermine American national sovereignty, free speech, and human dignity.
In its submission, FRC stated: “We call on HHS to reject the Draft Agreement in its entirety and reconsider the need for a pandemic agreement. The Draft Agreement cannot be salvaged with amendments or edits. Furthermore, any agreement that the Biden administration signs must be submitted to the U.S. Senate for its consideration, advice, and consent. The staggering obligations, new policies, and array of new institutions created by the Draft Agreement require the submission of the agreement to the Senate for consideration as a treaty.”
The comment also addressed concerns about governance structures: “We believe this vision for human flourishing is facilitated best by more localized political structures of representative, constitutional nation-states, and their subsidiary government layers (e.g., provinces, counties, and municipalities). FRC rejects any analytical framework wherein the best responses to any future pandemic could be promulgated by an amalgamation of world government structures. Although FRC recognizes that international cooperation between nations, international organizations, and NGOs has its benefits, the Draft Agreement only pays lip service to state sovereignty as it seeks to create new political arrangements that transfer power from individual member states to global institutions and sub-structures, most notably the WHO.”
FRC also criticized past actions by public health agencies during COVID-19: “The abject failures of public health organizations like the WHO, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the recent COVID-19 pandemic indicate that government-promulgated health narratives should be challengeable and open to public debate. The loss of that freedom will be far more life-threatening than any pandemic could be.”
In addition to submitting comments directly to HHS, FRC Action—the legislative affiliate of FRC—has encouraged its members to contact HHS regarding this issue.
Dr. Chris Gacek, Senior Fellow for Regulatory Affairs at Family Research Council and author of the comment, said: “On issue after issue, whether the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines, the need for scientific censorship, and most especially, national sovereignty, the WHO has been wrong at every turn. We must speak out against this international agency’s ceaseless efforts to seize power, including through its proposed Pandemic Preparedness Agreement. We must not let power be aggrandized by unelected international bureaucrats that threaten every nation-state’s right to act in the best interest of its people.”
The full text of FRC’s comment can be accessed at https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF24A66.pdf
