Jakarta –
Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently caused a stir on social media after his tweet satirizing the World Health Organization (WHO) went viral. In the tweet, Elon Musk said countries should not surrender their authority to WHO.
“Countries must not surrender authority to WHO,” wrote Musk, whose Twitter account has more than 132 million followers, in response to a video by far-right Australian senator Malcolm Roberts criticizing the UN health agency.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus immediately replied to his tweet. He firmly denied what Musk said.
“Countries don’t surrender sovereignty to @WHO,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted in response. “The #PandemicAccord is not going to change that. It will help countries better protect themselves from the pandemic,” he added.
In separate comments at the WHO’s weekly press conference on Thursday, Tedros said claims that a pandemic agreement would see countries relinquish power to WHO were “false” and “fake news.”
“If any politician or businessperson, or anyone else is confused about what the pandemic deal is and what it isn’t, we’d be more than happy to discuss it and explain it,” Tedros said, referring to Musk’s comments quoted by Reuters.
Since COVID-19 first emerged more than three years ago, the World Health Organization has been complaining about an infodemic of misinformation and disinformation surrounding the pandemic.
The UN agency has at times been the direct target of such attacks, with some commentators accusing it of trying to wrest health policy away from governments, especially since international negotiations between member states began on a new pandemic agreement to avoid and deal with future outbreaks.
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