UN secretary-general decries lack of global cooperation to beat pandemic The coronavirus pandemic has struck the globe during an era of massive refugee crises, confrontation among the world's great powers and armed conflicts in ...
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With no origins in the US State Department and entirely as idea of a private individual, this author, this plan is rapidly developing, thanks to recent insights from former UN Ambassador/New Mexico Governor William Blaine Richardson III and US Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, plus key officials in Finland, Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, and Former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.
This is not some ivory towered hermetic vision, but rather a practical and pragmatic plan resulting from the need to answer all-to-real questions from the pandemic world, the concept of which I hope eventually the US State Department will support, even without a dime of Federal funding. I think this all could be done with private foundation money, if that much money is even required. It is a well established fact that important work can be done at the United Nations which doesn't require overwhelming backing from any members of the Security Council.
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Richardson told me that "this is a great idea," and stated that he would speak directly with Secretary General Antonio Gutteres.
We discussed whether the Security Council would go along with such an idea. I posited that there would be no way that either China or the United States could object to formal legal inquiries with subpoena and interrogatory powers, whether or not attached to the International Court of Justice.
We discussed whether this current USA administration would even partially support creating a UN Pandemic Board of Inquiry.
Personally, I think WHO is not quite as autonomous as it should be, with the influence of the $200 million contribution last year by the Gates Foundation; finally, our focus is on legal matters and not medical.
United States Senator Heinrich:
"I'd love to take a look at the proposal. What is eminently clear already is that no wall can hold back a virus. Borders don't hold back viruses: they never have in the history of the world: these things will find their way into our communities, and the solution is Science, Facts, and Medicine, and also international cooperation.This thing is going to flare up again and again at different locations around the globe, and it puts all of us at risk, so instead of the go-it-alone approach, through structures like the United Nations and the World Health Organization, we need to cooperate internationally to have a coordinated response.
One of the first things we need to see happen there is banning the so-called Wildlife the Wet Market that have multiple times now have resulted in global viral zoonotic events where viruses have moved from animals into people, which would probably never have happened in a natural environment, but because of the very unhealthy and irresponsible use of wildlife in these markets, we now have a worldwide recession, or worse, and an enormous public health crisis.
Some of the early coordination can be to end that practice, so that at the very least, we can reduce the likelihood of follow on pandemic."
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After asking Finland's Foreign Ministry for their participation, not only in sponsoring this as a General Assembly resolution but to shape this evolving concept.
This answer this morning came from the present foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto:
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