Global health leaders gathered in Geneva on Sunday to discuss the pandemic are facing another viral problem: a visceral, passionate online backlash that falsely accuses the World Health Organization of conspiring to take power from national governments.

The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO’s 194 member states, is holding its first fully in-person event in two years as some coronavirus-related restrictions are lifted. While the assembly, now in its 75th year, is usually considered a dry, technocratic event, this year it is being framed by conspiracy theorists as a key moment in the battle between democracy and tyranny.

The theories focus largely on the discussion of a “pandemic treaty” — a potential agreement that could one day regulate how countries prepare for and respond to future pandemics. Though such a treaty will not be agreed upon at the assembly, the backlash has spread fast and far beyond the world of global health.

“This so-called pandemic treaty is the single, greatest global power grab that any of us has seen in our lifetime,” a Twitter account for the 1990s English pop group Right Said Fred posted recently, sharing an article written by a Scottish archaeologist and television host for the right-wing GB News.

A pandemic treaty is not imminent. Though member states agreed in December that a new agreement is needed, it will take years of negotiations to reach a final draft; 2024 is the target. Nor will it grant WHO sweeping new powers,...

Read Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/22/wha-who-pandemic-treaty/