CLAIMS MADE ONLINE that 194 national governments have recently “agreed to begin arresting and prosecuting citizens who speak out against the Bird Flu vaccine” are baseless.

The claims, which have been spread by Irish figures on social media, are based on amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) which were agreed by all countries in the World Health Organisation (WHO) — a United Nations agency that promotes health.

The International Health Regulations (IHR) define “countries’ rights and obligations in handling public health events and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders”.

This includes the duties of different countries in monitoring disease outbreaks and informing the international community about certain health emergencies.

However, the updates to these regulations are freely available online — and say nothing about bird flu, or about arresting or prosecuting people.

“194 World Health Organization (WHO) member states have agreed to begin arresting and prosecuting citizens who speak out against the Bird Flu vaccine, as part of tough new measures designed to stomp out so-called ‘misinformation’,” about 70 posts found by The Journal on Facebook and Instagram say.

They include at least five conspiracy-centred Irish Facebook groups and pages, as well as at least a dozen posts on X.com.

One of the posts on X.com has been viewed more than 2.4 million times.

“The World Healthy Assembly this week adopted amendments to the controversial International Health Regulations without any fanfare from the mainstream media,” the posts, all containing identical blocks of text, say.

They further claim that the updates will “abolish the national sovereignty of countries, grant the WHO sweeping powers to pass laws in western nations, and criminalizes speech that the WHO says undermines the official narrative”. 

However, the story that WHO members have agreed to arrest people who speak against bird flu vaccines is false.

It follows several outbreaks of bird flu (known as avian influenza virus H5N1) for which human vaccines have been developed.

The WHO is a regular target of misinformation, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, with conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccine activists targeting the organisation for endorsing vaccination.

The Journal has previously debunked claims that the WHO had changed its stance on lockdowns; or had said that Covid-19 is “no more dangerous” than the flu; or that a new pandemic treaty will allow the WHO to enforce lockdowns or imperil democracy.

The WHO recently amended the International Health Regulations (IHR), which initially focussed on limiting diseases such as typhus, cholera, plague, and yellow fever, but have since expanded to 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, these regulations do not mention bird flu, arrests, or prosecutions.

“The amended International Health Regulations cannot and do not authorise the arrest or prosecution of individuals on any grounds,” a spokesperson for the WHO told The Journal. “The claims are false.”

The spokesperson specifically stated that neither the IHR nor any of the amendments adopted by the World Health Assembly on 1 June 2024 reference the possible arrest or prosecution of people for expressing opposition to vaccines.

“WHO has never, and will never, support or recommend the arrest of anyone for refusing a vaccine because it is not WHO’s area of work. WHO is an organisation dealing with health,” they added.

The Irish Department of Health confirmed the WHO’s interpretation, saying: “The amended International Health Regulations (2005) cannot and does not authorise the arrest or prosecution of individuals on any grounds.”

The Department also noted, “the process of amending the International Health Regulations (2005) has not resulted in any transference of powers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the WHO Director-General to make domestic health policy decisions.”

Article updated with Department of Health response on 25 June.

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