Like it or not, there is something terribly wrong with the government in the United States today. The Joe Biden administration in Washington is said to propose amendments to the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations at the 75th World Health Assembly being held in Geneva, Switzerland (May 22- 28, 2022).
Observers say these amendments seek to authorise the WHO Director-General to declare a public health emergency of international concern, even without consulting the identified nation. This would make the health of the citizens of the UN’s 193 member nations, all of whom belong to the WHO, ultimately dependent on communist China.
Current WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is a non-physician, Marxist activist and politician from Ethiopia. The WHO under him has always done China’s bidding. It was slow to identify the threat of the current COVID. Given his background and functional pattern, he is highly likely to continue with his bidding on China; the record contributing to the world’s health has been absolutely heinous.
Ghebreyesus is likely to ignore what China has been up to all these years. Beijing is said to have been preparing for bio-warfare using pathogens. It is said to be working on gene-splicing and collecting DNA to develop new lethal viruses that would target people who are not Chinese.
The observers suggest the WHO needs to be saved from falling into the clutches of communist China. All enlightened segments in the fields of politics, academia, and media (print, electronic and social), in the world— particularly the United States and other democracies– must resist the US administration-proposed amendments. The enlightened must rather come forward with an appropriate international mechanism equipped with impartial leadership to take care of the entire humanity’s genuine health needs.
Ironically, the WHA is anything but global. It excludes Taiwan, an independent nation of 24 million people, from its deliberations. The motto of the world health organisation is to care for the health of all. It can never be ‘all’ if the health body ignores the island nation.
It is time to appreciate that Taiwan has had a great potential to help the world in addressing global health issues. Experience is the island nation has dealt with the current pandemic in a reasonably successful way. The world health body must have Taiwan in its fold and benefit from its medical system and expertise.
Fortunately, support for the inclusion of Taiwan into the WHO is growing across the contemporary international community. On August 5 last, the US Senate passed a bill urging its Department of State to develop a strategy to help Taiwan regain observer status at the WHA. The US House of Representatives had passed a similar bill.
Earlier, the G-7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ meeting voiced its support for Taiwan’s inclusion into the world health body. Some 127 European parliamentarians have also backed Taiwan’s bid to join the WHO.
(The author is a New Delhi-based journalist)
