On Thursday, the World Health Organization accused Elon Musk, without naming him, of spreading “fake news” after he tweeted that he urged countries “not to relinquish their authority” in the name of a draft international accord. designed to combat the pandemic. .

Controversy erupted on Thursday when Musk tweeted: “States must not cede their authority at the expense of the WHO,” referring to ongoing discussions at the United Nations to propose an agreement aimed at helping countries better prevent and combat the pandemic. .

In the first step, the director general of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, responded on Twitter, writing: “Countries do not surrender their sovereignty to the World Health Organization”.

“A pandemic deal will not change that, but it will help countries to better prevent pandemics. This will help us better protect people, whether they live in rich or poor countries,” she emphasized.

Later, Tedros returned to the subject at the opening of his weekly press conference on global health issues, criticizing the “misinformation” about the agreement that spread on social media. He added that “the assertion that the agreement will result in additional powers being granted to the World Health Organization is incorrect. It’s a false story.”

He also emphasized that “Only the States will decide what the agreement includes. They will implement the agreement based on their own laws.”

He added that “if a politician, businessman or anyone else feels unsure about what the deal includes, we are ready to discuss and clarify the matter.”

In early March, the director-general of the World Health Organization told reporters that member countries and the organization will soon begin negotiations on a draft agreement to address issues of information sharing and disparity in access to vaccines that have been observed between they. Rich and developing countries during the Covid pandemic.

The agreement will strengthen national, regional and global preparedness capacities, as well as monitoring, alert and speed of action.

He said he expected the talks to produce results by May 2024 and urged countries to “learn from this pandemic” to avoid repeating mistakes.

The draft agreement comes after the international community failed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, with countries and the World Health Organization accused of acting slowly and lacking in solidarity.

Since COVID-19 emerged more than three years ago, the World Health Organization has complained about the “spread” of false and erroneous information about the pandemic.

The United Nations has sometimes been a direct target of such attacks, with commentators accusing it of taking health policy away from governments, especially as international negotiations on a new treaty are underway between member states to prevent and treat any future . Epidemics.

The World Health Organization is made up of 194 member states and works to make important decisions about its health policies and budgets at an annual conference attended by governments.