Liberal presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come out against the WHO Pandemic Agreement, saying the COVID-19 lockdowns proved Americans should not strengthen an “unelected, quasi-governmental organization that is linked very strongly to the Chinese and the pharmaceutical companies.”
The WHO Pandemic Agreement calls on governments to suppress an “infodemic,” which means citizens have “too much information” about the ongoing pandemic. Every rung of society would be swept into stifling “false or misleading information” which “leads to mistrust in health authorities” or “undermines public health and social measures” such as vaccines and masks.
“The World Health Organization treaty should be dead in the water,” said Kennedy in video posted online Sunday.
During COVID-19, public health bureaucrats such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx “forced our country” into lockdowns, school closures, and social distancing, many of which Fauci has described as ineffective or unsupported by the science. “Good health doesn’t come from a syringe; it comes from nutrition, sanitation, good water, and having access to medical treatment,” said Kennedy in a social media post accompanying the video. “WHO used to focus on that.”
“The World Health Organization needs to be reorganized, or defunded,” the independent presidential candidate said. “The World Health Organization has basically become the facilitator for the pharmaceutical industry, mandating vaccines around the world that are untested.”
The WHO “is now 80% financed by private donors,” noted European Parliament in 2020.
“Why would we hand our sovereignty over to that organization?” asked Kennedy. “Yet that is the plan in the Biden White House,” which plans to adopt the agreement — originally described as a treaty — by executive fiat.
RFK Jr. highlighted concerning statements emanating from the World Economic Forum, which he called the “Davos billionaires boys club” are “antithetical to everything the United States believes in.” He also promised to crack down on non-governmental organizations influencing WHO, including foundations funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Kennedy’s criticisms give the WHO agreement an opponent whose politics skew reliably to the Left. In August, he rushed to quash any thought that he supported limits to abortion after the first trimester, a view held by 60% of Democrats. He endorsed same-sex marriage in 2011. While he said last year that “parents should have final say” over their children’s education, he canceled his appearance before Moms for Liberty when he found out the group opposes same-sex marriage.
“There will be nobody in the Oval Office who is more supportive of LGBTQ rights than I am,” Kennedy told a NewsNation event in June.
Although Kennedy has publicly testified against government attempts to castigate “malinformation,” the lifelong climate activist has supported jailing CEOs and dissolving organizations that deny man-made climate change. In 2009, RFK Jr. said coal company CEO and 2020 Constitution Party presidential candidate Don Blankenship “should be in jail … for all of eternity.” Five years later, he demurred on imprisoning CEOs but wrote that “corporations which deliberately, purposefully, maliciously and systematically sponsor climate lies should be given the death penalty.”
He praised former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco for withdrawing the charters of two nonprofits that Kennedy said acted as “front groups” for the tobacco industry, before describing eight leading conservative and libertarian think tanks as “front groups” and “snake pits for sociopaths,” including: the Cato Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Cooler Heads Coalition, Global Climate Coalition, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans for Prosperity, Heartland Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), George C. Marshall Institute, State Policy Network, Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), and American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Kennedy’s outspoken critique proves that “the truth about the Pandemic Agreement is coming to light,” Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “A concentrated amount of world power is being placed in the hands of a few, who are no longer operating in the best interest of public health but are imposing personal ideological views on sovereign nation states in the name of ‘health.’”
Weber particularly underscored Kennedy’s concerns about the treaty’s impact on America’s national sovereignty. “The WHO Pandemic Agreement will dramatically shift the world balance of power into the hands of these few at the helm of the WHO and will also set a dangerous precedent for such power shifts to occur at other world bodies. “The WHO and other international governance structures like it will shift decision making and control away from families, communities, and nations — toward global power centers far from the people whose lives they affect.”
“This should be alarming to anyone who wants to preserve freedom and their way of life — in whatever nation they call home,” said Weber.
Despite his left-wing position on many issues, Kennedy has consistently won the most favorable views of any presidential candidate in the 2024 race. Polls show Kennedy anywhere from 5% to 21% of the vote in the general election. RFK Jr.’s popularity has given Democratic consultants heartburn over worries that he may play a spoiler for President Joe Biden, siphoning off enough left-leaning votes to elect Donald Trump president.
Yet Kennedy drew evenly from both parties, finding most of his supporters among people who would not vote for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, according to a Monmouth University poll released in December. Another poll shows Trump increasing his lead by one percentage point in a three-way presidential race — and piling up a whopping 11-point victory over Biden in a race featuring far-left candidates Cornel West (independent) and Jill Stein (Green Party).
Kennedy announced he has qualified to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire and Utah. His campaign is forming a “We the People” Party in states where ballot access laws treat minor parties more favorably than independent candidates: California, Delaware, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Mississippi. He’s also formed a “Texas Independent Party” in the Lone Star State. Kennedy told CNN Saturday he would be open to running as the Libertarian Party candidate, which would assure ballot access in all 50 states.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
