WHO chief dr. Tedros on mis- and disinformation undermining pandemic treaty

"Trust into the global system is very, very difficult, especially with all the misinformation and disinformation. And the challenge we're facing now with the pandemic agreement, with all the misinformation circulating, I think everybody's witnessing it.

This pandemic agreement is a negotiation between member states and four member states. And when agreed, it will be implemented based on their national laws. But what's circulating now is as if WHO is going to take over or WHO is going to be dictating lockdowns and so on, which will never happen because what is circulating is actually a lie and a misinformation.

So the solution for this, for instance, because trust should be tailored to some specific issues, is to have a system that is able to the member states should come out and say this is a negotiation between us, for us, and we will implement it based on our national law, and there is nothing that will be a world government that some people are saying that will dictate or, you know, what do you call it, tamper into their democracy.

So I think for this, for trust to come, the member states themselves, the 194 should come and say it, tell the truth. Then at least if everybody says it in their respective countries, trust could come. But many countries are quiet, almost all of them to be honest. You're quiet despite all the misinformation that's circulating.

We cannot say it, WHO, because WHO is not negotiating or we're not the one who is going to write the negotiations. It's the member states, belongs to the member states, and the member states should defend it. And it's in each country, whatever they say and do, telling the facts that can bring back trust and how this pandemic agreement can help in preventing the same crisis like COVID from happening.

They should tell them and they should promise that. Because that's the intent of the agreement or the treaty to prepare the world to prevent the next pandemic."