House legislation seeks to mandate accountability for foreign nations and review WHO’s pandemic actions

U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Conor Lamb (D-PA) sought legislative action on foreign nations’ health efforts last week, introducing the Never Again International Outbreak Prevention Act to establish new monitoring and reporting mandates, sanctions, and an investigation of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Together, the representatives are urging the U.S. government to demand other nations implement systems for the reporting of outbreaks of novel diseases and to punish bad actors. The legislation would allow the stripping of sovereign immunity of nations found to have intentionally misled the international community on the outbreak of health concerns leading to a pandemic. Under the new bill, U.S. citizens would also be able to bring lawsuits against whole nations in U.S. courts to file for damages.

Among other items, the bill would also require the creation of an international sentinel surveillance system to collect data, identify trends and outbreaks, and provide real-time monitoring of global diseases. All countries would have to report any new cases to that entity within three days.

“As we have seen from COVID-19, the Chinese Communist Party has been intentionally and maliciously misleading the rest of the world about the scope and spread of the novel coronavirus,” Fitzpatrick said. “We must hold other nations accountable for their actions that threaten and harm the livelihoods of Americans and people across the world. We must also hold organizations such as the WHO accountable for their inactions with regards to the spread of COVID-19. The response to the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic must be global. We must work to close the gaps in our global alert system and work with our allies to make sure this never happens again.”

If passed, the bill would require the President of the United States to work with other G-20 nations to develop a report on the international response to COVID-19, and specifically, to audit the WHO’s response to the same. Introduced as H.R. 7132 last year, the bill’s previous incarnation failed without a vote.

“This legislation puts measures in place that will guarantee both an improved response as well as the accountability of global officials for identified failures to avoid another massive global pandemic like we are facing today,” Lamb said.