DeSantis Says He Will Nix WHO Pandemic Treaty If Elected President

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during a Q&A with Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek (L) and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Oct. 27, 2022. (Erin Granzow)

Presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would nix the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic treaty if elected president and not let it compromise U.S. sovereignty.

At the event hosted by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and The Epoch Times on Oct. 27, Mr. DeSantis was asked how he would treat the WHO pandemic treaty, a global accord on prevention and preparedness for future pandemic response, if elected president.

“As president,” he said, “I will take that treaty, and I will throw that in the trash can where it belongs.”

Mr. DeSantis called the treaty “an international lockdown treaty” that might comprise U.S. sovereignty.

“It’s a sovereignty issue first and foremost. Why would we give up sovereignty,” Mr. DeSantis noted.

The Biden administration is pushing the WHO pandemic treaty. Critics worried the treaty would give the WHO the authority to control global pandemic response and infringe on U.S. sovereignty.

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Mr. DeSantis added that “in Florida, we’ve already passed legislation nullifying any impact of that WHO treaty. It’s a lockdown treaty. On the State of Florida, we will not recognize it. We will not abide by it.”

The Florida governor referred to the law he signed in May, which was designed to keep Florida out of the WHO pandemic treaty for future pandemic response.

He then cited the negative impact when dismissive policies were carried out during COVID responses, such as collateral damage and people’s individual rights and freedoms being undermined.

The Republican presidential hopeful went on and said some bad decisions made by Western governments prolonged lockdowns even though no data supported it.

He warned of abuse of power when they are given too much power.

“That tells me that they were more interested in controlling behavior than they were about stopping a particular virus,” Mr. DeSantis said.

“If you give these people an inch, they will take a mile,” he noted.

“We will absolutely nix that treaty,” Mr. DeSantis concluded.

Furthermore, Mr. DeSantis sent a message that he would “clean house” by holding federal health agencies accountable, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for their “harmful” COVID response that weakened the United States.

In March, Mr. DeSantis blamed failed policies from federal and many state governments and their pandemic responses for causing multiple problems. He also criticized experts for “getting it wrong about COVID-19.”

Sovereignty Concern

The WHO has introduced its zero draft of its global pandemic response accord for its member states to negotiate. The World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decision-making body, will submit this legally binding draft for consideration in 2024.

Under the proposed accord, the WHO would be authorized to determine when and how lockdowns are carried out.

Experts have raised concerns that the treaty could wipe out countries’ sovereignty and undermine individual freedom if abused, as seen in the last COVID response, where almost all countries carried out the China lockdown model pushed by the WHO.

The White House and the WHO defended the treaty as State Secretary Antony Blinken told Congress in March that the Biden administration “is trying to strengthen the global architecture for dealing with pandemics.”

U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill and a resolution that require Senate approval for the treaty to prevent a U.S. president from “ceding U.S. sovereignty to World Health Organization.”

“The World Health Organization has proven itself incapable of holding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. Relinquishing U.S. sovereignty to an international entity like this would dilute American excellence,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said before Congress in March when introducing the resolution preventing President Joe Biden from signing the treaty.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), co-sponsor of the resolution, said in the statement at that time: “The WHO failed to hold China accountable for the global spread of COVID-19, which killed over 1 million Americans and thousands of Idahoans. Giving it power over any future health emergency affecting the U.S. would be a disaster with potentially deadly consequences.”

Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, in April, warned that the CCP might seek to exploit the WHO pandemic treaty to expand worldwide China’s infamous social credit system that tracks Chinese people.

A British politician also warned that the treaty “represents an assault on our freedoms” and creates a “vast public health surveillance mechanism.”