‘On a Fast Track’: Controversial WHO Pandemic Accord Would Be ‘Binding,’ Says Congressman

Earlier this week, World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary General Tedros Ghebreyesus stated his hopes that a highly controversial global pandemic accord would be ready by May and would be “endorsed” by his organization. Experts say the treaty would infringe on the sovereignty of countries in how they respond to future pandemics, as well as promote abortion, increase censorship of debates surrounding health care, and promote racial discrimination and quotas, among a host of other concerns.

On Wednesday, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to provide an update on the situation and share his alarm about the nature of the accord.

“They’re on a fast track,” he explained. “Much of this has been done without very much scrutiny or insight. … But what we do know from the draft of this pandemic treaty is that it will be binding. They say it right in the treaty. It will be just as if the U.S. Congress and the president signed a law that does all of these things. … [Biden is] very likely to do an executive agreement … which bypasses Congress — exactly what he did with the Iran nuclear deal.”

Smith, who serves as a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, went on to detail how the agreement explicitly promotes abortion.

“It promotes abortion on demand in Article 6, which is very clear,” he emphasized. “… And when you look at what Tedros himself has done, he has entered into these cooperative agreements with a number of very vociferously pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood, a group out of the European Union, and … the Center for Reproductive Rights. … [T]hey have model legislation for every country in the world that says no gestational limits on abortion right up until the moment of birth. [It also contains] no conscience protections for health care professionals, including doctors [and] OB-GYNs who don’t want to do it or be participants. And [it’s] publicly funded through taxpayer funds. … And you can’t challenge them because if you [did, it] would be considered to be misinformation and they would have the weight of law to silence it, just like the Biden administration worked with social media giants to silence critics during COVID.”

The congressman further argued that WHO’s stated commitment to fight “misinformation” is highly hypocritical. “[T]hey have language in Article 18 about combating … ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation.’ Uh, how about the misinformation and disinformation that came from WHO itself about the origins as well as the lethality and transferability of COVID-19? They lied and they did whatever the Chinese Communist Party wanted them to do, because Tedros got his job from XI Jinping, the communist dictator there.”

Smith also noted that the extent to which the accord would compel American taxpayers to pay WHO in the event of a future pandemic will likely be exorbitant, and that it will likely require the U.S. to abide by edicts that could force businesses to close, as what occurred during the COVID pandemic.

“[B]eginning in 2026, we, the United States government taxpayers … will be assessed a certain amount of money, which could be in the billions,” he described. “We don’t know how much, and because the treaty [is] binding, we have to pay it. And if there is another pandemic like COVID-19, they have enormous new powers based on the drafts I’ve seen. … [W]hat Biden did when he mandated that businesses provide the COVID vaccine under the OSHA … he had no power to do it. He did it. To its credit, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped it. But how are we going to stop this when Tedros and company tell us you’ve got to provide vaccines to two-year-olds, or you have to close up your shops and shut down everything. … [I]t’s unclear how coercive their powers will be to impose that upon the United States of America and other countries.”

So far, three GOP members of Congress have introduced bills opposing WHO’s pandemic accord, including Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.).