Who’s Afraid of the WHO

Commentary By way of a preamble, let me note the irony that pandemics are a perfect example of “problems without passports,” in the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s words, that require solutions without passports. Yet, one of the solutions imposed with encouragement from the World Health Organisation (WHO)—sans any sort of pushback—to manage the COVID-19 pandemic was vaccine passports. Once betrayed, twice shy of the message: “Trust us. We are from the WHO, here to keep you safe.” On March 11, I wrote an article criticising what appeared to be a slow motion coup d’état by the WHO to seize health powers from states in the name of preparing for, conducting early warning surveillance of, and responding to “public health emergencies of international [and regional] concern.”...