The 2024 amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that were put in place following the COVID-19 pandemic were officially rejected by President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday.
In a joint statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy stated that the move “prevents international bureaucrats from shaping US domestic policies.”
The regulations were made more stringent by the legally binding amendments to improve the international response to a potential pandemic.
They included efforts to improve information-sharing between nations around the world and WHO, as well as the adoption of a crystal clear definition of what constitutes a pandemic emergency and how it can be triggered.
Additionally, the amendments called for “equitably address the needs and priorities of developing countries” by allowing poorer nations to access medical products.
The reforms’ various provisions were opposed by the US officials.
Rubio and Kennedy both claimed in their statements that “the terminology used throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, which puts off WHO-coordinated international responses that emphasize political issues like solidarity.”
During the pandemic, lockdowns and mandates for vaccines were contentious political issues in the US, with right-wing activists supporting Trump as the leader in rejecting the measures.
US conservatives have long been skeptical of multilateral institutions, believing that US laws violate the country’s sovereignty.
However, global health regulations advocate that global pandemics must be addressed through a coordinated, international effort because they do not stop at borders.
Trump made a formal announcement that the US would leave the WHO by January 2026 shortly after taking office earlier this year.
The amendments “compel countries to adopt digital health documents,” according to Kennedy and Rubio on Friday.
Our agencies have stated and will continue to do so: “We will put Americans first in everything we do, and we will not tolerate international policies that violate Americans’ freedoms, such as privacy and speech,” the officials said.
“These amendments pose a risk of unwarranted interference with our country’s sovereign right to formulate health policies.”
Participants would voluntarily submit information to the documents, even though the reforms call for WHO to create and improve a database for access to digital health certificates internationally.
During the pandemic, most nations, including the US during Trump’s first term, required visitors to take negative COVID tests.
When WHO signed a separate agreement to improve pandemic preparedness in May, the US did not.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply