In December 2021, members of the World Health Assembly agreed to draft an agreement under the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) to strengthen the world's pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The plan has been to develop a draft, accept comments and amendments during 2023, and sign it into law in 2024.
An Intergovernmental Governing Body (IGB) has been drafting this document, and they will be accepting feedback from "relevant stakeholders" regarding the final draft, as well as the addition of amendments. There are about 220 relevant stakeholders participating in this. Not surprisingly, they include civil society, academic, and health groups; the pharmaceutical industry is also well-represented, along with agribusiness groups. Some of these negotiations have been open to the media. Many have not.
President Biden has supported this effort from the beginning, and American groups represent some of the relevant stakeholders.
Much ado has been made over this the past few weeks, with voices on the right saying it's going to kill Americans, and voices on the fact-checking left scoffing at all those conspiracy theorists who think the U.S. would sign over sovereignty to an international body.
Here's what you need to know straight from the treaty draft itself. READ MORE