A false and misleading online chain of online complaints has emerged on the Pandemic Treaty, A historic agreement which has just been agreed by more than 190 members of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The pandemic treaty was proposed for the first time by the members of the WHO in the middle of the Pandemic COVID-19, in order to “prevent, prepare and respond to pandemics”.
For global health experts, a future pandemic is a question of knowing when and not if.
After more than three years of long negotiations, WHO members reached an agreement on April 16, while the treaty will only be legally binding after being officially adopted by the States – which should occur in May.
Since the WHO has been created in 1948, a single other international agreement on this scale has ever been concluded – the 2003 tobacco control agreement.
Although conspiracy theories and WHO news is commonplace online, the pandemic treaty has given them a new opportunity to resurface.
Will the treaty replace state sovereignty?
In a position shared on X on March 18, the ultra-conservative group Citizensglobal alleged that the treaty would cause controlled health policies “by non-elected officials under the cover of pandemic preparation”.
Although the pandemic agreement is legally binding once the states have adopted it, the Treaty does not prevail over the nation's ability to adopt individual pandemic policies.
Affairs to WHO occurs on a voluntary basis, the wording of the treaty explicitly affirming the sovereignty of the States.
In a declaration Posted April 16 Shortly after the treaty was agreed, the WHO said that “nothing in the draft contract will be interpreted as providing which is the authority to direct, order, modify or prescribe national laws or policies, or oblige states to take specific measures”.
Will the treaty impose compulsory vaccinations?
Another online complaint, shared on April 12 by AUF1, an Austrian far -right media chain said that “the treaty would cause compulsory vaccination, test diets and isolation requirements”.
According to the WHO declaration, nothing in the treaty gives it the power to force a country to “prohibit or accept travelers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implementing”.
Addressing Euronews, Jaume Vidal, senior policy advisor at Health Action International, said “before the WHO declares a public health emergency of a particular concern like a pandemic, it goes through a committee with the Member States and the Experts”.
“Governments have the last word on everything that happens in their territories. The one who can advise, can he suggest, provide technical assistance, but it is the governments that finally decide,” he added.
Will states be forced to give vaccines?
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the richer countries were accused of hoarding of vaccines to the detriment of poor countries.
ADVERTISEMENTIn order to manage this, the members examined how this problem could be resolved during the negotiations of the treaties. However, this prospect has led some online users to say that the agreement would lead to the countries forced to give vaccines.
“A potential obligation to donate or give vaccines is not agreed in the treaty. It is not clear what percentage of vaccines or other medical products should potentially be provided to the WHO,” said Pedro A. Villarreal, a global researcher, German Institute for International Security Affairs.
“If a vaccination agreement takes place between certain countries, it is not clear whether poor countries would receive vaccines for free or at preferential prices,” added Villarreal.
Another discord point was the technology transfer clause, which is focused on the idea that countries could share intellectual property rights and tools for the production of vaccines and medicine.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile low -income countries were favorable to stronger rules that would allow them to produce locally, richer countries, including EU members, insisted that technology transfer should be voluntary and “agreed”.
Wider pandemic skepticism
In Europe, Slovak Prime Minister Roberto Fico – which created a special commission responsible for investigating pandemic measures – issued the most vocal criticism of the pandemic treaty.
In October 2024, the Commission called on Slovakia to “refuse to sign the World Pandemic Treaty, as well as the updated regulations of the World Organization”.
Former Slovakian Minister of Health, Zuzana Dolinková, resigned from his post shortly after the report, which was discredited by scientists.
ADVERTISEMENTAbroad, US President Donald Trump began the World Health Organization's withdrawal process in January.
– Gabriela Galvin contributed to the reports
