In the name of preventing and fighting pandemics, the Biden Administration and international entities are negotiating an agreement that would establish a public-health technocracy. The proposed treaty, known as the "WHO Convention, Agreement or Other International Instrument on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response" — or WHO CA+, for short — would transform WHO from a purely advisory organization into one with regulatory power to enact international public policies.

What the Treaty Entails

The WHO CA+ specifically centralizes public-health power into the WHO. From the current draft of the proposed treaty:

Central role of WHO — As the directing and coordinating authority on global health, and the leader of multilateral cooperation in global health governance, WHO is fundamental to strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery of health systems.

The WHO director-general would be granted the power to "declare pandemics," at which point emergency provisions of the treaty to impose public-health policies would go into effect:

Recognizing the central role of WHO as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work, and mindful of the need for coordination with regional organizations, entities in the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations, the WHO Director-General shall, in accordance with terms set out herein, declare pandemics.