WHO Launches ‘Global Digital Health Certification Network’ Raising Concerns (Worthy News In-depth – Video)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS/GENEVA (Worthy News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a “global digital health certification network” backed by the European Union, but critics fear it will restrict the freedoms of billions of people.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while “the emergency face of the [COVID-19] pandemic is now over, investments in digital infrastructure remain an important resource for health systems and for economies and societies at large.”
He clarified that the WHO has agreed with the EU’s executive European Commission on a system based on the EU digital COVID certificate, also called a ‘digital vaccine passport.’
The EU claims more than 2.3 billion COVID certificates were issued during the pandemic. The certificate was to reveal a person’s status regarding COVID vaccination before being allowed into public areas ranging from bars and restaurants to schools or even churches.
“The European Union certification system was used by all 27 EU member states and more than 50 other countries. Building on the success of the EU system, the WHO is proud today to launch the global certificate health certification system network,” Tedros noted at a briefing monitored by Worthy News.
He thanked the EU for the “excellent verification system that you have transferred to us and that we have the chance to build on it.”
Tedros added that the WHO has begun operations of the network in recent days “with the existing COVID-19 certificate as a global public good.”
EXPANDING INFRASTRUCTURE
He explained that “soon after, we will expand this infrastructure by incorporating other use such as a digitalized international certification of vaccination, route immunization cards, and international patient summaries.”
The EU’s Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, called the “partnership” with the WHO an “important step for the digital action plan” of the EU Global Health Strategy. “As the directing and coordinating authority on international health work, there is no better partner than the WHO to advance the work we started at the EU and further develop global digital health solutions.”
Kyriakides spoke of “a powerful example of how alignment between the EU and the WHO can deliver better health for all, in the EU and across the world.”
The EU’s executive European Commission and WHO said the global digital health certification would help “facilitate safe free movement,” but prominent critics disagree
Derrick Broze, a prominent journalist and activist investigating the COVID-19 certificates on which the new system is based, said it was “created by public-private partnerships between government and Non-Governmental Organizations and corporations. [They all] required individuals to show proof of vaccination to work, travel, or eat.”
Rights activists compare the digital vaccine certificate system to the social credit system in Communist-run China, where dissidents, including Christians, can lose credit for “unsocial behavior” linked to their views.
Without these credits, they can be limited in freedoms, for instance, by being unable to travel on public transport ranging from trains to airplanes, besides other limitations.
CONTROLLING LIVES
Advocates claim, however, that the vaccine certificates are a way to facilitate travel and reopening efforts following a pandemic.
Yet it is another step towards control over people’s lives, argues Broze. “The Technocratic State is coming into view,” he warned.
Critics suggest that vaccine certificates are part of a broader effort by the WHO to impose its will on the world.
They refer to a planned WHO “pandemic treaty” that allegedly enables organization to control U.S. policies during a pandemic, including those on vaccines, lockdowns, school closures and more.
Yet experts supporting the proposed treaty, which is still in draft form, say it does not overrule any nation’s ability to pass individual pandemic-related policies.
Negotiations on the pandemic accord “will aim to produce a final draft for consideration by the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024,” the WHO confirmed.
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