Who Is Rejecting the WHO?

Commentary Rejection is a fact of life.  It’s an unwelcome fact that spares no-one including the World Health Organisation (WHO).  They’ve been banging on the doors of countries like determined encyclopaedia salesmen offering up benefits of the pandemic instrument and the International Health Regulations (IHR).  Yet while a number of the doors have swung open wider than the proverbial jaws of an insatiable crocodile, some are being slammed shut. The rejection saga unfolds in some countries like a tragic opera.  First to the landscapes of Slovakia where the WHO’s plea for solidarity has met a cold reception. Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, said in a speech on Nov. 17 that Slovakia “will not support strengthening the powers of the WHO at the expense of sovereign states in managing the fight against pandemics.”...