Embracing COVID misinformation, Kansas Senate says ‘national sovereignty’ is under threat
The Kansas Senate adopted a resolution Monday condemning proposed changes to the World Health Organization that some Republicans falsely contend would remove health policy authority from U.S. officials.
Without debate or a roll call vote, senators approved the resolution, which is grounded in right-wing fears of a handover of “national sovereignty” to the WHO.
The resolution’s language echoes misinformation advanced by conservative commentators and others that President Joe Biden’s administration is offering amendments to international health regulations that would transfer authority to the WHO director-general. The Associated Press and Politifact both debunked those claims last week.
The resolution, offered by state Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican and former TV meteorologist, carries no legal weight but represents the official stance of the Kansas Senate. Thompson, who has been critical of measures to control COVID-19, told Republicans during a caucus meeting the changes to the WHO “could potentially affect our ability to deal with pandemics at the federal level and ultimately at the state level.”
The proposed amendments “are strongly disapproved as they will ultimately hand over the United States’ national sovereignty and authority to the WHO and place our democratic nation in the control of an unelected international organization that is wholly unaccountable to the people of this country,” the resolution says.
The Senate approved the amendment on a voice vote after Thompson read the resolution on the floor. No one rose to speak for or against it, though some “no” votes could be heard on a livestream of the Senate chamber.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. drafted a series of amendments to a legal framework called the International Health Regulations, which define countries’ rights and obligations in handling cross-border public health emergencies. The U.S. amendments call for greater accountability and transparency in responding to such emergencies.
Former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, alleged on talk radio last week that the amendments would allow the WHO director-general to impose global lockdowns and vaccine mandates, as well as force climate change policy and even gun control measures on member nations.
Experts familiar with the International Health Regulations say these assertions are misleading, and the idea that the director-general could impose enforceable mandates on other countries is unfounded.
Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor and director of the university’s WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, told the AP that the director-general only has the power to make recommendations, not enact laws or otherwise dictate national policy decisions.
“It is utterly untrue that the IHR would interfere with health care decisions or transfer such decisions to the WHO Director-General,” he wrote in an email.
The Star’s Katie Bernard and the Associated Press contributed reporting
