{"id":270,"date":"2025-07-18T18:22:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2025-07-21T13:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T13:18:18","slug":"us-rejects-amendments-to-who-international-health-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/18\/us-rejects-amendments-to-who-international-health-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"US rejects amendments to WHO international health regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump administration officials rejected a series of rules<\/a> Friday to help the international community prevent and respond to public health risks.  <\/p>\n

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a joint statement formally rejecting<\/a> the 2024 International Health Regulations (IHR) Amendments by the World Health Organization<\/a> (WHO).  <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Kennedy said in a video message posted on social platform X<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States can cooperate with other nations without jeopardizing our civil liberties, without undermining our Constitution, and without ceding away America\u2019s treasured sovereignty,” he added.<\/p>\n

The IHR is an international legal agreement that has been adopted by all 194 WHO member states and includes an outline to \u201crights and responsibilities\u201d of the organization and governments in handling global health emergencies like pandemics. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Both the IHR amendments and the pandemic agreement leave health policy up to national governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said in a post on X<\/a> <\/a>that the organization has never had the power to mandate lockdowns, travel restrictions or any other similar measures. <\/p>\n

“Member States have the power to do so if they see the need,” he wrote. <\/p>\n

Member states decided to review and potentially amend the IHR in 2022 in light of the challenges that arose among the international community in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to health nonprofit KFF<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

The WHO formally approved a of number revisions to the IHR last year but did not come to a consensus on a pandemic agreement<\/a> until earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said in the video message that WHO member states have until next week to reject the amendments. He added the U.S. is choosing to reject the amended regulations, in part, for reasons related to \u201cnational sovereignty.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNations who accept the new regulations are signing over their power in health emergencies to an unelected, international organization that could order lockdowns, travel restrictions or any other measures it sees fit,\u201d the HHS chief said. \u201cIf we are going to give the WHO that much power we should at least invite a thorough public debate.”<\/p>\n

He noted that the U.S.’s decision to reject the amendments was sparked by concerns over a regulation regarding “risk communications” systems. <\/p>\n

The amended requirements, Kennedy continued, require countries to establish systems of risk communication that he believes opens the door to \u201cnarrative management, propaganda and censorship\u201d that the world saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see that kind of system institutionalized even further,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n

There is also concern over a provision in the amendments related \u201cglobal systems of health IDs and vaccine passports\u201d which Kennedy thinks will pave the way for global medical surveillance.  <\/p>\n

The move is the latest in the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to try to distance the U.S.<\/a> from the WHO.  <\/p>\n

In January, President Trump issued an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the organization and stated the country would pause the future transfer of funding.<\/p>\n

The president tried to withdraw the country from the international organization during his first term. The withdrawal never happened \u2014 it takes a year for a member state to fully withdraw from the WHO \u2014 and former President Biden reversed the decision once he took office<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

Public health experts decried Trump\u2019s move, warning that it would severely weaken domestic and global public health.  <\/p>\n

The U.S. was a founding member of the WHO in 1948 and is the largest financial donor of the organization.<\/p>\n

\u2014Updated at 6:08 p.m. EDT<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump administration officials rejected a series of rules Friday to help the international community prevent and respond to public health risks.   Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a joint statement formally rejecting the 2024 International Health Regulations (IHR) Amendments by the World Health Organization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dexalumpotrik.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}