Latest news with #DepartmentofState
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US rejects WHO pandemic changes to global health rules
(Corrects to indicate US rejected 2024 amendments to global health rules, not 2025 pandemic agreement, in headline, paragraphs 1-3, 6-7, 9) By Ahmed Aboulenein WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has rejected amendments adopted in 2024 by members of the World Health Organization to its legally binding health rules aimed at improving preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to COVID-19. The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted on Friday the official U.S. rejection of the amendments to the International Health Regulations, which were adopted by consensus last year. The amendments introduced a new category of "pandemic emergency" for the most significant and globally threatening health crises in an effort to shore up the world's defenses against new pathogens. "Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO's ability to facilitate 'equitable access' of health commodities," the U.S. statement said. "Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-coordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions," said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety, had slammed the WHO in a video address to the Assembly during its vote on a separate pandemic agreement, saying it had failed to learn from the lessons of the pandemic. That pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations, aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20% of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access. U.S. negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the U.S. - by far the WHO's largest financial backer - from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the U.S. would not be bound by the pact. Kennedy and Rubio said on Friday that their rejection protects U.S. sovereignty. The IHR amendments and the parallel pandemic pact leave health policy to national governments and contain nothing that overrides national sovereignty, however.
Time of India
a day ago
- Health
- Time of India
US rejects WHO pandemic changes to global health rules
Washington: The United States has rejected amendments adopted in 2024 by members of the World Health Organization to its legally binding health rules aimed at improving preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to COVID-19. The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted on Friday the official U.S. rejection of the amendments to the International Health Regulations , which were adopted by consensus last year. The amendments introduced a new category of " pandemic emergency " for the most significant and globally threatening health crises in an effort to shore up the world's defenses against new pathogens. "Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO's ability to facilitate 'equitable access' of health commodities," the U.S. statement said. "Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-coordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions," said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety, had slammed the WHO in a video address to the Assembly during its vote on a separate pandemic agreement, saying it had failed to learn from the lessons of the pandemic. That pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations, aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20% of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access. U.S. negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the U.S. - by far the WHO's largest financial backer - from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the U.S. would not be bound by the pact. Kennedy and Rubio said on Friday that their rejection protects U.S. sovereignty. The IHR amendments and the parallel pandemic pact leave health policy to national governments and contain nothing that overrides national sovereignty, however.
Politico
a day ago
- Politics
- Politico
Trump admin: Maduro will send back Alien Enemies Act deportees if US court orders return
'The Maduro regime will not impose obstacles to the individual's travel,' Harper said in a sworn declaration Friday to U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Maryland-based Trump appointee. That arrangement for the Venezuelan men, many of whom were deported under President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, will also allow the return of 10 Americans detained in Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security and Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment. If the agreement is carried out, it appears poised to end a legal standoff in which judges have weighed ordering the return of Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador in March with little to no due process. That includes proceedings pending before Washington, D.C.'s chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who had pushed the Trump administration to find ways to return the deportees in order to provide them a chance to challenge the claim they were gang members. Boasberg's initial effort to block the rushed March 15 deportations — and the administration's decision to deplane the deportees in El Salvador despite the judge's order — provoked an extraordinary legal clash in which Trump called for Boasberg's impeachment and Boasberg threatened to hold administration officials in contempt. Gallagher in April ordered the return of one of those men, Daniel Lozano Camargo, finding that he had been deported to El Salvador despite being shielded from removal by a year-old legal settlement. On Friday, the Trump administration said Lozano — identified in court papers by the alias Cristian — would be free to return to the United States to continue his immigration proceedings 'should he wish to return.' The legal brawl over the Trump administration's summary deportation of more than 130 Venezuelan men in March — after Trump invoked little-used war powers and labeled them members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — had at times consumed the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda. It drew attention to what courts described as the Trump administration's flagrant abuses of due process, which may have ensnared innocent people among the larger group of deportees. Several cases related to those men and others fearful they may face a similar fate had been advancing through the courts and led to a slew of legal rebukes, as well as a brushback from the Supreme Court, which found the men had not been provided with a meaningful chance to contest their deportation.
RNZ News
a day ago
- Health
- RNZ News
US rejects WHO pandemic changes to global health rules
By Ahmed Aboulenein , Reuters Robert F Kennedy Jr Photo: ALEX WONG / AFP The United States has rejected amendments adopted in 2024 by members of the World Health Organization (WHO) to its legally binding health rules aimed at improving preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to Covid-19. The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted on Friday the official US rejection of the amendments to the International Health Regulations, which were adopted by consensus last year. The amendments introduced a new category of "pandemic emergency" for the most significant and globally threatening health crises in an effort to shore up the world's defenses against new pathogens. "Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO's ability to facilitate 'equitable access' of health commodities," the US statement said. "Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-coordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions," said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety , had slammed the WHO in a video address to the Assembly during its vote on a separate pandemic agreement, saying it had failed to learn from the lessons of the pandemic. That pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations, aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20 percent of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access. US negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the US - by far the WHO's largest financial backer - from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the US would not be bound by the pact. Kennedy and Rubio said on Friday that their rejection protects US sovereignty. The IHR amendments and the parallel pandemic pact leave health policy to national governments and contain nothing that overrides national sovereignty, however. - Reuters
Reuters
a day ago
- Health
- Reuters
US rejects WHO pandemic changes to global health rules
WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - The United States has rejected amendments adopted in 2024 by members of the World Health Organization to its legally binding health rules aimed at improving preparedness for future pandemics following the disjointed global response to COVID-19. The Department of State and Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement they had transmitted on Friday the official U.S. rejection of the amendments to the International Health Regulations, which were adopted by consensus last year. The amendments introduced a new category of "pandemic emergency" for the most significant and globally threatening health crises in an effort to shore up the world's defenses against new pathogens. "Developed without adequate public input, these amendments expand the role of the WHO in public health emergencies, create additional authorities for the WHO for shaping pandemic declarations, and promote WHO's ability to facilitate 'equitable access' of health commodities," the U.S. statement said. "Terminology throughout the 2024 amendments is vague and broad, risking WHO-coordinated international responses that focus on political issues like solidarity, rather than rapid and effective actions," said the statement, jointly issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who has a long history of sowing doubt about vaccine safety, had slammed the WHO in a video address to the Assembly during its vote on a separate pandemic agreement, saying it had failed to learn from the lessons of the pandemic. That pact, which was adopted in Geneva in May after three years of negotiations, aims to ensure that drugs, therapeutics and vaccines are globally accessible when the next pandemic hits. It requires participating manufacturers to allocate a target of 20% of their vaccines, medicines and tests to the WHO during a pandemic to ensure poorer countries have access. U.S. negotiators left discussions about the accord after President Donald Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the U.S. - by far the WHO's largest financial backer - from the agency when he took office in January. Its exit means the U.S. would not be bound by the pact. Kennedy and Rubio said on Friday that their rejection protects U.S. sovereignty. The IHR amendments and the parallel pandemic pact leave health policy to national governments and contain nothing that overrides national sovereignty, however.
