My talk in Genoa and what else I've been up to
The WHO has announced it will not complete the IHR Amendments or the Pandemic Agreement final drafts until after the middle of May
I gave a talk in Genoa which was similar to my talks in Rome, with a few new slides. I met with a Spanish politician to discuss what might be done in regional Parliaments. Not much yet: the Spanish leaders are still under the spell of the vaccines and the pandemic.
However, an Italian Senator, Senator Borghi, said at the Rome conference that Italy will not be voting in favor of the treaties.
I’ve just spent a glorious 3 days at a retreat sponsored by the Brownstone Institute—at a resort in San Feliu de Guixols on Spain’s Costa Brava, its northern Mediterranean coast in the region of Catalonia. It has been unseasonably cool, windy and rainy during this trip in both Rome, Genoa and Spain, so it was with great relief that I had brought a down jacket with me. I wound up sleeping in it several nights, because Spain’s hotels turn off the central heat in April.
It was great to meet so many committed activists and intellectuals from Europe and the US and cross pollinate with them. Unfortunately the EU politicians who were invited had to cancel at the last minute due to EU elections coming up.
I think the inability of the Treaty and IHR committees to create a final draft of either document, despite scheduling extra negotiating sessions almost up until their scheduled votes, reveals the truth: this was not a “nation-led” effort to solve a dire problem, but rather a problem and solutions imposed from above, for which there is no consensus.
Furthermore, nations were supposed to get the newly amended IHR draft in January, and they didn’t. Health ministries then told parliamantarians they would get the final versions in April. That won’t happen.
Presumably a huge effort will be made to get nations to sign on despite having only about a week or so to see and evaluate the final drafts of both documents before the WHA meeting commences on May 27.
The DELAY the VOTE effort now makes a great deal of sense. How can nations properly assess these documents, filled with twists and turns, internal contradictions and deliberately vague language, in such a short time? Delay the vote until next year. By then, hopefully the whole idea will have withered on the vine.
Here is my Genoa talk. Do you prefer my powerpoints as pdf’s or screen shots?
"Delay the vote until next year. By then, hopefully the whole idea will have withered on the vine."
Withered on the vine? How about roadkill squashed flat on the highway.
Sorry you had awful weather here in s. Europe. It’s been the same over here in France and yes, heating goes off in April - no-one expects to need it the week before May! We’ve had a log fire going - highly unusual for this time of year.
Still - you got things done despite the cold & the wind. THANK YOU!