Arizona legislative Republicans are standing against a proposed accord from the World Health Organization.
Earlier this spring, an Arizona Senate Republican took aim at the WHO’s Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response Accord (PPPRA). In a statement for the Arizona Senate Republicans weekly newsletter, Senator Janae Shamp, who read the proclamation in her chamber, said that “The World Health Organization is creating a global pandemic agreement between its 194 member states, including the U.S, that would be detrimental to our health and freedoms. The Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response Accord would establish WHO as the governing authority on a wide range of healthcare issues, including vaccinations, abortion, and transgender therapy, all of which are rightly in the province of the American people and their representatives.”
Shamp added, “The PPPRA would also establish WHO as the ‘arbiter of truth’ on all pandemic-related information, thus silencing dissenting voices in direct violation of our First Amendment rights. These are just a couple examples of how the treaty would disturbingly infringe upon our constitutional rights. This week, I read a proclamation stating the Arizona Senate opposes the United States’ participation in this agreement and urges the Biden Administration to withdraw our nation from it.”
The proclamation, entitled “Arizona’s Sovereignty from Participation in the WHO’s Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response Accord,” noted that the WHO’s PPPRA would “become binding upon the United States unless the Biden Administration opposes or delays adoption, [and that] there is concern that the U.S.’s participation in the PPPRA will place America’s sovereignty in jeopardy by relinquishing national and state power to an international organization over which this country has little to no control.”
The proclamation was transmitted to President Joe Biden.
Recently, former President Donald J. Trump told attendees of the Libertarian Party National Convention that “drafts of the agreement show that they (the WHO) want to subjugate America to foreign nations, attack free speech, [and] empower the World Health Organization to redistribute American resources.” He promised to “rip them (this WHO agreement and other similar arrangements) up and throw them out on day one of the Trump administration.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) will give $25 gift cards to attendees of an LGBTQ+ “health equity” event on Tuesday.
Attendance was limited to 30 people, or $750 in gift cards. Attendees were required to be at least 18 years old, living in Pima County, and identifying as an LGBTQ+ community member.
ADHS partnered with the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) to host the event. SAAF confirmed with AZ Free News that there would be about 12 participants. Also helping facilitate the event was Lenartz Consulting — a company owned by Tracy Lenartz, a health planning consultant for ADHS. Recordings from these in-person listening sessions are anonymized and transferred to ADHS for review before being destroyed.
According to ADHS, referencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “health equity” is defined as the fair and just opportunity for all to achieve the highest level of health. Equity is also at the center of the CDC’s 10 Essential Public Health Services framework, unchanged for 25 years until September 2020 — less than four months after the death of George Floyd, which spurred months of Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots and social justice campaigns across state and local governments.
“To achieve equity, the Essential Public Health Services actively promote policies, systems, and overall community conditions that enable optimal health for all and seek to remove systemic and structural barriers that have resulted in health inequities,” stated the CDC. “Such barriers include poverty, racism, gender discrimination, ableism, and other forms of oppression. Everyone should have a fair and just opportunity to achieve optimal health and well-being.”
ADHS adopted an “equity focus” as one of its core values, and added “advancing health equity” to their strategic map issued last year.
The map noted that “equity focused” meant that ADHS valued and respected diverse life differences. In order to understand its equity focus, ADHS suggested resources for the community such as training modules on social determinants of health and how health inequity is rooted in “powerlessness.”
In honor of #NationalMinorityHealthMonth, ADHS is proud to highlight our Office of Health Equity and their work to reduce health disparities in Arizona by supporting communities of color. Thank you for all that you do! pic.twitter.com/8Luh8CDtvE
The ADHS definition of social determinants of health suggests that personal behaviors and clinical care are only a minor part of what determines one’s health. The other, greater factors would be social, economic, and environmental conditions: policies, programs, systems, communities such as transportation options, segregation, housing, discrimination, crime, and poor quality of education.
The concept of powerlessness referenced by ADHS comes from institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO), which theorizes that a lack of social and institutional power inequities results in poorer health in the poor, minorities, and women. The WHO suggested that political interventions must be implemented in order to reverse negative health trends: legal reform, or changes in economic or social relationships.
ADHS also participates in an annual Arizona Health Equity Conference which tackles these issues. This year, they will be joined by Arizona State University (ASU) Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, Arizona Alliance For Community Health Centers, A.T. Still University, Dignity Health, Esperanca, Equality Health, FSL, Honor Health, Mayo Clinic, Mercy Care, and the University of Arizona (UArizona) Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
