Is Elon Musk spreading ‘fake news’? This is what the boss of the World Health Organization (WHO) thinks, who responded, without naming him, to the accusations of the billionaire, Thursday, March 23. The controversy started earlier in the day, when Elon Musk tweeted: “Countries must not cede their authority to the WHO”, in reference to ongoing discussions within the UN agency to establish a international agreement to help countries better prevent and combat pandemics.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus first responded to him on Twitter: “Countries don’t cede sovereignty to the WHO.” “The pandemic agreement is not going to change that. The agreement is going to help countries better protect themselves against pandemics. It will help us better protect people, whether they live in rich or poor countries,” he said. he assured.
Shortly after, Dr Tedros returned to the subject at the start of his weekly press conference on global health issues, pointing to “misinformation” about the deal circulating on social media. “The claim that the deal will cede power to the WHO is simply untrue. It’s ‘fake news’,” he continued.
He assured that “the countries will decide what the agreement says, and they alone”, and who “will implement the agreement in accordance with their own laws”. And, he added, “if any politician, businessman or anyone else is confused about what the pandemic accord is and is not, we would be more than ‘happy to discuss and explain’.
Addressing issues of unequal access to vaccines
In early March, Dr Tedros told reporters that WHO member states would soon begin negotiations on the draft agreement, aimed in particular at addressing issues of information sharing and unequal access to vaccines. observed between rich and developing countries in the face of Covid-19.
The agreement would also strengthen national, regional and global capacities for preparing, detecting, alerting and responding to pandemics. He said he hoped that the negotiations could be concluded by May 2024 and called on countries “to learn the lessons of this pandemic” so as not to repeat its mistakes.
This draft agreement was born following the failure of the international community to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The States, but also the WHO, have been accused of having acted too late and with little solidarity.
“The 2023 pandemic plan that they are hiding from us”
According to viral publications on social networks, the WHO would prepare a treaty which would allow “to control the internal policies” of the States in the event of a future pandemic. As specified 20 minutesthe posts on Facebook, Twitter invite people to sign a petition launched by a Swiss association, the international association for natural, scientific and humanist health, in order to oppose France’s signature of this plan.
“The countries that ratify this treaty will be subject to a health tyranny when a new epidemic decreed by the WHO occurs”, was indignant on Twitter on February 26, retired infectious disease specialist Stéphane Gayet, struck off by the Order. doctors in July 2022, accompanied by an illustration which reads “Alert: ‘the 2023 pandemic plan they are hiding from us'”.
This draft agreement, still under discussion, has nothing hidden, however, as recalled 20 minutes : the preliminary draft on the negotiating table during the last session between February 27 and March 3 is available online. The WHO devotes a page of Frequently Asked Questions on the subject.