Elon Musk and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), battled on Twitter over the potential dangers of a sweeping, legally binding global agreement under discussion to combat future pandemics.
"Countries should not cede authority to WHO," Musk tweeted Thursday in response to a video of Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts criticizing the United Nations' health agency and what both supporters and opponents informally call a "pandemic treaty" that has been in the works.
Ghebreyesus quickly responded to Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, rejecting the notion that a pandemic treaty would undermine national sovereignty and centralize too much power in the hands of the WHO, as critics allege.
"Countries aren't ceding sovereignty to [the WHO]," tweeted Ghebreyesus. "The pandemic accord won't change that. The accord will help countries better guard against pandemics. It will help us to better protect people regardless of whether they live in countries that are rich or poor."
At the WHO's weekly news conference later on Thursday, Ghebreyesus dismissed claims that the pandemic treaty would have countries cede power to the WHO as "quite simply false" and "fake news," in an apparent reference to Musk's comments.
"If any politician or businessperson, or anyone at all is confused about what the pandemic accord is and isn't, we would be more than happy to discuss it and explain it," said Ghebreyesus.
The WHO director added that countries will decide what the global pandemic accord says and implement its measures "in line with their own national laws."
Supporters argue a pandemic treaty can address the holes exposed by the world's response to the COVID pandemic. Ghebreyesus has criticized countries for adopting "me-first" approaches that, he argues, stymie the global solidarity needed to deal with threats like COVID.
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Georgetown University Professor of Global Health Law Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO's Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, has similarly condemned "nationalistic leaders" for "taking a stance of 'my country first.'"
An early draft of the treaty reportedly included a measure for governments to reserve 20% of any tests, vaccines, or treatments developed for the WHO to distribute in poorer countries. The draft also appeared to push for intellectual property rights to be waived during pandemics, which advocates say would allow for wider access to life-saving drugs and vaccines more quickly.
An initial "zero draft" from last year outlining ideas for how the WHO can strengthen its preparedness and response to health emergencies called on the global body to establish a "new global system for surveillance" and "to deploy proactive countermeasures against misinformation and social media attacks."
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Critics say the treaty would vastly expand the authority and resources of the WHO, which would be given greater control to dictate how nations respond to future pandemics — power, they argue, that isn't deserved in light of the global body's handling of COVID.
Republicans in Congress have warned they will oppose any attempt by the Biden administration to adhere to a global pandemic treaty unless the agreement first wins Senate approval.
In December 2021, the 194 member countries of the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-making body, agreed to "kickstart a global process to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement, or other international instrument under the Constitution of the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response."
The decision established an intergovernmental negotiating body to draft an international pandemic treaty. Talks on the treaty are underway. The goal is to deliver a progress report to the World Health Assembly this year and to adopt the treaty next year.
