A global vaccine treaty being drafted by the World Health Organization (W.H.O) is to be rejected by Britain amid concerns it would have to give away a fifth of its jabs while ceding sovereignty to the unelected U.N. subsidiary.
The Daily Telegraph reported that according to a draft of the pandemic accord being negotiated at the W.H.O., richer countries should be asked to help world cope with pandemics, including giving over 20 percent of tests, treatments and vaccines for the W.H.O. to distribute in poorer countries during emergencies at its discretion.
“We will only support the adoption of the accord and accept it on behalf of the UK, if it is firmly in the UK national interest and respects national sovereignty,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care confirmed in a statement to Reuters.
The spokesperson did not comment on the details of the specific accord proposals, adding “no proposals have been agreed” as other countries also rally to reject the plea for a “global pandemic treaty.”
The House Freedom Caucus sent Biden a letter demanding he stand against the W.H.O.’s push for a “global pandemic treaty.” https://t.co/3l9IUel17X
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 24, 2022
The new pact – first proposed in 2021 – and a series of updates since to existing rules for dealing with pandemics from the W.H.O. are intended to establish central control in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
One of the main points of disagreement is the issue of sharing drugs and vaccines.
W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that countries need to agree to the accord within the deadline to help fight future pandemics.
He added countries who did not fully agree with the text to at least refrain from blocking consensus among W.H.O.’s 194 member states.
As Tedros works towards getting sovereign national governments to accede to his plan, voters in the UK are not so sure.
In 2022 over 100,000 people in Britain signed a petition demanding a referendum on the so-called Pandemic Treaty, as Breitbart News reported.
The petition called on the government to put the question to the British public in the form of a referendum, harkening back to the idea of the Brexit referendum to secure the UK’s sovereignty from the European Union in 2016.
The petition, which has since garnered over 150,000 signatures, states: “We believe the public must be furnished with the full ramifications of what and how any pandemic treaty could affect them, and be given a public vote on whether the UK should sign up, before the UK Government signs up to this.”
In line with the UK government’s rules on official petitions, as the document has the threshold of 100,000 signatures, the national Parliament is obliged to consider the motion for debate.
