World Health Organisation leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

This afternoon.

Ahead of  the World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting to sign off on a possible Global Pandemic Treaty at the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, from this Sunday, May 22-28…

…via Bruce Y Lee (no relation to the Kung Fu legend) in Forbes:

You know the 1996 movie Independence Day, where much of the World united to defeat a common enemy? Well, during the Covid-19 pandemic that started in 2020, pretty much the opposite happened. The World was about as organized as all-cat produced and directed episode of Dancing with the Stars or rather Dancing with the Stars Who are Also Cats.

The global pandemic response had relatively little coordination, little unity. In fact, it was more like the 1983 and 2009 TV miniseries V, where many politicians, personalities, social media accounts and others seemed like they were actually trying to help the enemy, in this case, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)….

…Yet, despite the clear need for more global coordination, some politicians, some celebrities, and a bunch of social media accounts have been trying to, guess what, argue against such a treaty. They even started a hashtag #StopTheTreaty.

Yeah, having no global agreement in place before the next pandemic is going to work out real well, right?

Later….

Ultimately, those opposing any global pandemic treaty don’t seem to be offering any viable alternatives to improve the world’s ability to prevent and control pandemics. It’s easy to criticize anything and keep yelling words such as “freedom” kind of how babies fight against wearing clothes and insist on pooping whenever they want to do or doo-doo so. What’s much more difficult is finding solutions.

If invaders from outer space were to appear now as they did in Independence Day, our world would be kind of in trouble. You’d have politicians, TV personalities, and others claiming that the invaders aren’t real and even siding with them.

Our world needs to be more unified in order to more effectively fend off any major threats to our health, whether its infectious disease, non-communicable disease like obesity, or aliens with tentacles and telepathic ability.

Remember what that John McClane character said in the 1988 movie Die Hard:

“Now, you listen to me, jerk-off. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Quit being part of the [bleeping] problem and put the other guy back on!”

It’s time to put real science and health experts back on.

The WHO To Discuss Global Pandemic Treaty At World Health Assembly May 22-28 (Bruce Y lee, Forbes)

Yesterday: WHO Know What Tomorrow Brings

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