The Trump administration has rejected a call for “solidarity” in a plan to respond to the next global pandemic in partnership with the World Health Organization.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy in a joint statement released Friday cited risk of “unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy” in rejecting a reforms proposed WHO.
A central amendment to the plan included a “commitment to solidarity and equity” in studying the needs of developing countries in future emergencies as part of the International Health Regulations, which provide a legal framework for combatting diseases, Notre Temps reported.
The amendments were reportedly agreed upon last year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, but the Trump administration said it would pull the U.S. back from the agreement to prioritize Americans “first.”
“The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations open the door to the kind of narrative management, propaganda, and censorship that we saw during the COVID pandemic,” Kennedy said. “The United States can cooperate with other nations without jeopardizing our civil liberties, without undermining our Constitution, and without ceding away America’s treasured sovereignty.”
Rubio added, “Our Agencies have been and will continue to be clear: we will put Americans first in all our actions and we will not tolerate international policies that infringe on Americans’ speech, privacy, or personal liberties.”
PBS reported that 400,000 Americans were confirmed to have died under President Donald Trump’s watch when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Upon taking office for a second term in January, Trump made a unilateral decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.
The Daily Beast contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for further clarification on the rejection of the amendments.
