The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recently revealed that he and Argentine President Javier Milei have been in discussions regarding the establishment of an alternative international health system.
This revelation came during Kennedy's two-day visit to Buenos Aires, where he met with Milei and other Argentine officials. This visit followed his attendance at the inauguration of President Daniel Noboa in Ecuador.
According to Breitbart, Kennedy's visit to Argentina was marked by the formalization of the Milei government's withdrawal from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.). This move aligns with President Milei's long-standing criticism of the W.H.O.'s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Milei, a populist libertarian, had previously expressed his intent to exit the organization following President Donald Trumps electoral victory in America. Trump, on his first day of his second term, initiated the process for America to withdraw from the W.H.O., citing its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.
Kennedy and Milei's discussions centered around the creation of a parallel international public health structure. In a statement, Kennedy said, I had a wonderful meeting with Argentine President [Milei] about our nations mutual withdrawal from the WHO and the creation of an alternative international health system, based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control.
The joint statement issued by Kennedy and his Argentine counterpart, Mario Lugones, did not explicitly mention the creation of an international public health forum. However, it did condemn the World Health Organization, which both governments have accused of threatening the sovereignty of independent states.
The statement read, The WHOs handling of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious structural and operational shortcomings that undermined global trust, and highlighted the urgent need for independent, science-based leadership in global health.
Both the United States and Argentina have expressed concerns about the undue influence that the Communist Party of China reportedly had on the W.H.O.s handling of the pandemic. The W.H.O. has been accused of echoing Chinese government stances on major issues in 2020, including discouraging travel bans on people coming from Wuhan and other affected areas in China and denying that evidence existed that the highly contagious coronavirus was capable of human-to-human transmission.
The joint statement also criticized the W.H.O.'s decision to bar Taiwan from participating in its events at the behest of China, which falsely claims Taiwan as a province under Beijings rule. This decision was deemed catastrophic as Taiwanese officials had warned of evidence of a contagious disease spreading in Wuhan in 2019, only to be mostly ignored.
While not explicitly defining it as a separate institution, the statement did note that Washington and Buenos Aires would work towards building a modern global health cooperation model grounded in scientific integrity, transparency, sovereignty, and accountability.
This challenge to the United Nations body comes after the conclusion of the W.H.O.s largest annual gathering, the World Health Assembly. The Assembly celebrated the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement, an international legal document intended to grant the W.H.O. greater authority in handling future pandemics.
The final version of the Pandemic Agreement, which neither Argentina nor America participated in passing, calls for the creation of an organizing entity to stockpile and redistribute safe, quality, and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics as well as other critical medical equipment in the event of a pandemic.
Despite the W.H.O.'s celebration of the Pandemic Agreement, the U.S. and Argentina's withdrawal from the organization and their plans to establish an alternative health system underscore their commitment to scientific integrity, transparency, sovereignty, and accountability in global health.
Their actions also highlight the growing dissatisfaction with the W.H.O.'s handling of the pandemic and its perceived susceptibility to political influence.
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