WHO is no longer on first in the United States.
I’m not sure that joke works, but you get the idea. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., posted a five-minute video explaining to the American public why the United States is rejecting the World Health Organization’s demand that it have the power to impose restrictions on American citizens for anything that has “potential public health” implications.
The US would be handing over to a foreign body the power to direct the behavior of US citizens–and that is not going to happen.
The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations open the door to the kind of narrative management, propaganda, and censorship that we saw during the COVID pandemic. The United States can cooperate with other nations without jeopardizing our civil liberties,… pic.twitter.com/k9IWRavu9D
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) July 18, 2025
The WHO was also demanding control over public health messaging–essentially demanding that it have access to a propaganda arm funded by the US government to indoctrinate citizens. This is just what the US and state governments tried to do during the COVID pandemic, and exactly what should never happen again.
And that’s not all!
The WHO wants to implement a centralized medical database, create vaccine passports, and an entire regime of medical monitoring that amounts to a medical social credit system. It’s based on the Chinese model–which, as you recall, so many of the transnational elite admire so much.
In a joint statement along with the Secretary of State, the Director of USAID, and the National Archivist Marco Rubio, Kennedy laid out many of the reasons they decided to reject the WHO’s amendments to the International Health Regulations:
Today, the Department of State, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), transmitted the official U.S. rejection of the 2024 amendments to the International Heath Regulations (IHR) (2005). This action delivers on our promise to the American people – to fight for Americans in the international system, protect our national sovereignty, and prevent international bureaucrats from shaping U.S. domestic policies.
In 2024, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that significantly expanded the World Health Organization’s (WHO) authority over international public health responses. 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. These amendments have undue influence on our domestic health responses from WHO directives. They also fail to adequately address the WHO’s susceptibility to the political influence and censorship – most notably from China – during outbreaks. These amendments were set to become binding on the United States regardless of our withdrawal from the WHO.
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. The amendments also suggest that countries develop capabilities that jeopardize management and dissemination controls over public health information, potentially stifling valuable scientific debate. Furthermore, these revisions compel countries to adopt digital health documents. Our Agencies have been and will continue to be clear: we will put Americans first in all our actions and we will not tolerate international policies that infringe on Americans’ speech, privacy, or personal liberties. These amendments risk unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy. We are proud to have worked jointly to ensure public health policy continues to be dictated by the values and will of the American people, not unelected global actors.
Statements are fine, but I have to hand it to Kennedy that he went on camera to explain his reasoning for making this decision. Rather than making people rely on whatever the media chooses to present to people, he goes straight over their heads and provides his reasoning in clear, concise, and detailed language.
Kudos to Kennedy and Rubio for their decision, and double kudos for going straight to the people to explain why they did it.
