A VIDEO WHICH claims that the World Health Organisation is bringing in new rules which will undo human rights protections, take away national sovereignty, and reduce the “value” of humans, has been spread online, including by a suspended Northern Irish doctor.

These claims about the World Health Organisation (WHO) have no basis. However, they are regularly repeated online despite the “rules” they reference being publicly available.

The WHO is a regular target of conspiracy theories, particularly arising out of its role encouraging health protection measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The WHO is developing [...] a pandemic treaty and amendment to the existing International Health Regulations (IHR) that will remove the Human Rights protections currently embedded in the IHRs, will enforce surveillance, censorship, get rid of freedom of speech, and require governments to censor and only push a single narrative,” a woman in a video shared on social media says, in front of an EU logo.

On-screen, a caption reads: “No way she said this out loud?” 

The lack of context to the video clip about the WHO has led some people to believe that the woman speaking in the video, Meryl Nass, is a member of the WHO, while other posts have been spread online that make this claim explicitly.

However, she is not: Nass is in fact a doctor from the US state of Maine, and her licence was suspended in 2022 for multiple infractions after a board found she “exhibited incompetency” and that her model of practising medicine during the pandemic was “unsafe for patients”.

The WHO video shows part of a speech given by Nass in May last year, at an event attended by various Covid-19 conspiracy theorists.

The speakers at the event promoted disproven treatments for Covid-19, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as baseless claims about vaccines’ effects on fertility.

Rules and Regulations

So what is the pandemic treaty and the International Health Regulations (IHR) referred to in the video? And is the WHO bringing in changes that will erode human rights and national sovereignty?

Misleading claims about the pandemic treaty and the IHR have been widespread since the pandemic, and often claim the treaty and regulations will give the WHO massive powers, including the ability to impose lockdowns, make vaccines mandatory, and order the arrest of people who speak out against them.

None of these claims are true.

The so-called “pandemic treaty” was the subject of misinformation even before the text of the agreement was created.

While the text of the agreement is still being negotiated by member countries of the WHO, publicly available drafts of the text have not proposed removing human rights, but have instead enshrined them.

The WHO in September amended the International Health Regulations (IHR), which initially focused on limiting diseases such as typhus, cholera, plague, and yellow fever.

The regulations have since expanded so that they will also require countries to be able to test for diseases and quickly notify hospitals, ports, and the international community of dangerous outbreaks.

“The amendments to the International Health Regulations will bolster countries’ ability to detect and respond to future outbreaks and pandemics by strengthening their own national capacities, and coordination between fellow States, on disease surveillance, information sharing and response,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, has said.

The updated regulations are available online and require that each state should develop core capabilities, such as “risk communication, including addressing misinformation and disinformation”.

The WHO said in a press release that these new regulations “build on lessons learned from several global health emergencies, including the Covid-19 pandemic” and should help detect disease outbreaks and strengthen global responses to future public health emergencies.

However, some commentators believe that these updates contain sinister mechanisms.

The IHR and their amendments, which can be read online, define “countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders”, according to the WHO.

The regulations include the duties that countries have to monitor disease outbreaks and inform the international community about certain health emergencies.

In July, representatives of the 194 countries in the WHO agreed to IHR amendments to “strengthen mechanisms for our collective protections and preparedness against outbreak and pandemic emergency risks”, according to Dr Abdullah Assiri, a co-chair of the working group responsible for the amendments.

Reading through the amendments (outlined here), none mention giving the WHO the power to enforce mandatory vaccines, censorship, or surveillance, as Dr Meryl Nass claims they do.

The Journal has previously debunked claims that were spread in the British media citing Members of Parliament, that the IHR could give the WHO powers to enforce lockdowns and shut down borders.

The new IHR amendments have also been falsely claimed to mean countries would “begin arresting and prosecuting citizens who speak out against the Bird Flu vaccine”.

Context

The video was shared by Dr Anne McCloskey on 1 December with the caption: “The wonderful Dr Meryl Nass. She is sadly correct. The WHO has big plans. Prepare to #justsayno.”

McCloskey ran in the 2020 General election for Aontú, for whom she was the deputy leader at the time. She has since ran for office in Northern Ireland as an independent candidate. 

A former GP, McCloskey was suspended from practising by medical tribunals for undermining “public health information and “public confidence in the medical profession” as well as discouraging people from having a COVID-19 vaccine.

She was also found guilty of misconduct for not notifying the UK General Medical Council after she was charged with attending an anti-mask protest.

Recent posts on her Facebook page currently contain discredited theories about Covid-19 and vaccines to cure the virus.

The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.