Once again, the fatuous logic of US Republican lawmakers is on display for the world to see. Their criticism of a potential pandemic treaty (Report, March 12) rests again on the flawed logic of diminishing US sovereignty.
I am sure that in their mind, any failure to reach a deal on a pandemic treaty would result in any future pathogen thinking twice before violating US sovereignty. No one has yet explained to them that pathogens do not care about the principles of sovereignty.
Similarly, pathogens would hardly be concerned by a US withdrawal from the World Health Organization if there were a new Trump administration. After all, it is the principle of the thing, right? And I am sure that raison d’être will fit nicely on gravestones and be included in all those obituaries of those Americans who become the unfortunate victims of the next pandemic.
All because sharing genomic data on pathogens and funding health systems during emergencies violated principles of US sovereignty. But at least they will have died for a cause, albeit totally unnecessarily and needlessly.
Those who oppose the treaty on the grounds it diminishes US sovereignty would do well to recall the words of President John F Kennedy: “Political sovereignty is but a mockery without the means of meeting poverty, illiteracy, and disease.”
Alan Capps
Alexandria, VA, US
