What if? And who to trust?
By Keri Molloy, Published via Substack
Keri Molloy is an independent journalist based in New Zealand. The original version of this blog is available here at the author’s Substack.
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, underway this week in Switzerland, is convened under the theme 'rebuilding trust.'
In her address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned chairman Klaus Schwab and her audience that their top concern for the next two years is not conflict or climate, it is disinformation and misinformation: “Ladies and gentlemen, dear Klaus, let me go back to the number one concern of the Global Risk Report. Disinformation and misinformation: tackling this has been our focus since the very beginning of my mandate.”
The WEF and the WHO have a big hill to climb in rebuilding trust, if they ever had it that is.
Trust is a belief in something that is honest, safe and reliable and that it will not harm you.
The World Health Organisation and The World Economic Forum worked closely together on a COVID Action Platform aimed at creating and distributing the coronavirus vaccines. Now there’s the severe risk of an unidentified disease “X”.
This week the WHO promises to release a new report that ‘details the numbers of lives saved in Europe, thanks to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines’.
So the old ‘safe and effective’ mantra is still alive and we can expect more vaccine activity with the unknown ‘X’ disease. But there’s not a lot of trust out there.
A public opinion poll has reported that 53 percent of Americans think severe side effects from the vaccines are leading to large numbers of unexplained deaths.
And the COVID-19 vaccines have been described as a ‘biological safety catastrophe’ at a Congressional hearing in the USA. Witnesses at the January 12 hearing called for market withdrawal of all COVID-19 vaccine products for safety concerns.
Let’s look at what is being done to rebuild trust.
Article 18 of the WHO’s proposed treaty deals with communication and public awareness.
“Member states shall promote and facilitate infodemic management, and educational and public awareness programmes on pandemics and their effects, in a way that is broadly accessible.”
They say this approach will strengthen public trust and promote adherence to public health and social measures.
The trouble is that people remember how censorship and propaganda created a monopoly during the COVID pandemic — how they were bulldozed into accepting the COVID vaccines as the only tool in the box.
And who will forget the derision and divisiveness of the Nobody is safe campaign?
Mainstream media fell in line. As a result mainstream news outlets have already lost public trust and are likely to lose what diminishing readership they still have. If censorship and propaganda is further embedded, citizens will have no idea what is really going on.
Could it be, in this time of distrust, that the WEF and the WHO see censorship as a tool to gain authority and that they use fear to help line up citizens of the world for legally binding health dictates.
There is much confusion about national and individual sovereignty.
It is clear from the WHO’s pandemic agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations that the amendments are intended to be binding under international law.
However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said repeatedly that no country will cede sovereignty to the WHO.
Canadian Law Professor Bruce Pardy offers an understanding of the situation.
When the WHO denies it is seizing control or undermining democracy, they are technically correct, he says.
But national governments must approve WHO’s proposals. “Without their agreement, the WHO has no power to impose its dictates.”
Professor Pardy says sovereign states have exclusive jurisdiction in their own territory but national governments can agree to follow the authority of international organisations and they can craft domestic laws accordingly. In other words ‘they can undertake to tie their own hands’.
States that sign on to the WHO proposals retain the sovereignty to change their minds, but leaving international regimes can be difficult.
Technocrats learned a lot from COVID. Not how to avoid policy mistakes, but how to exercise control, he says.
“These proposals will make next time worse. Not because they override sovereignty, but because they will protect domestic authorities from responsibility. States will still have their powers. The WHO plan will shield them from the scrutiny of their own people.”
Professor Pardy explains the difference between domestic law and international law.
When countries make treaties, they make promises to each other. International law may regard those promises as ‘binding’. But they are not binding in the same sense as a domestic contract. The two legal systems are distinct.
International courts cannot enforce treaty promises against unwilling parties in the same way that a domestic court can enforce contractual promises.
Countries make promises to each other when it is in their political interests to do so. They keep those promises on the same criteria. When they don’t, political consequences sometimes follow, although formal legal consequences rarely do.
Professor Pardy is the executive director of Rights Probe and a professor of law at Queen’s University in Canada.
So, under the proposals being drafted, the WHO will become the world’s health authority. Countries will undertake to follow WHO’s recommendations and WHO measures ‘shall’ be initiated and completed without delay by all state parties.
If New Zealand falls in line, officials will be able to justify restrictions by citing global duties. Lockdowns, quarantine, vaccines, surveillance, travel restrictions, and border closures are all on the table. They will be able to claim that WHO directives leave them with no choice and that will absolve them from accountability.
“The WHO proposals prescribe authority without accountability, but they do not eliminate sovereignty. Instead, national governments are in on the game. When your own government aims to manage you, national sovereignty is no protection anyway”, says Professor Pardy.
Governments that promise to do as the WHO directs will make private citizens and domestic businesses comply. And, under the draft agreement, countries will commit to censoring what it deems to be false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation.
“Sovereignty provides no protection from your own authoritarian state”, says Bruce Pardy
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Notes:
Pfizer Makes Big Bet on Looming "Heart Failure Pandemic"
Scientists are now warning that the latest COVID variant could trigger a “heart failure pandemic.” Pfizer recently acquired a firm specialising in developing treatments, particularly for heart inflammation conditions like myocarditis and pericarditis.
Things may not be looking good for Pfizer concerning its COVID-19 vaccine but the company has turned its sights on the lucrative obesity market. Chief Executive Albert Bourla is quoted in a Reuters article: "Pfizer's position is that we believe that obesity is a place that we have the ability to play and win. So we will have to play,"
He doesn’t suggest better or safer products, calling instead for better contracting and better commercial execution.
The Working Group on International Health Regulations (co-chaired by Ashley Bloomfield) next meets February 5 to 9 and again in April 2024, to finalise its proposed package of amendments to be presented to the World Health Assembly in May.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):
Note these provisions:
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country (Article 13).
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers (Article 19).
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association (Article 20).
The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government (Article 21).
United Nations institutions have been advocating for censoring unofficial views in order to protect what they call “information integrity.” (Information integrity is the dependability or trustworthiness of information).
Everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand aged 5 and over can get a free COVID-19 vaccine now. You can get a booster if you are aged 16 or over. We’re still told that serious side effects are rare. Book My Vaccine
The World Economic Forum is launching a new Digital Healthcare Transformation Initiative prioritising public-private partnerships to accelerate the impact of digital, data and AI in healthcare ecosystems.
Who's at the Davos gathering? More than 60 heads of state and government, though not ours, are listed.
Li Qiang, Premier of the People's Republic of China; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; Javier Milei, President of Argentina; Han Duck-soo, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea; Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain; Viola Amherd, President of the Swiss Confederation 2024 and Federal Councillor of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports; Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine; Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium; Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, President of Colombia; Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece; Mohammed Shyaa Al Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq; Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach of Ireland; Bisher Hani Al Khasawneh, Prime Minister of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; William Samoei Ruto, President of Kenya; Najib Mikati, President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon; Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, Prime Minister of Mongolia; Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria; Andrzej Duda, President of Poland; Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar; Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia; Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore; Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka; Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel; Srettha Thavisin, Prime Minister of Thailand; Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Viet Nam.
Then there’s Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State; Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser, and heads of international organisations, including António Guterres, UN Secretary-General; Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund; Ajay S. Banga, President, World Bank Group, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization; Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and of course Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization; Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme.
Further, they are joined by some 1,600 business leaders, including 800-plus of the world’s top CEOs and chairs, 150 global innovators including WEF’s Young Global Leaders and entrepreneurs. Last but not least there are some150 experts and heads of the world’s leading universities, research institutions and think tanks and others from ‘civil society’.
Sources
Global Risks Report 2024 | World Economic Forum
Long Term Follow-Up After Administration of Human Gene Therapy Products; Guidance for Industry
