Federal vote on 18 June 2023
Swiss Federal Office of Public Health in tow of WHO
This is one more reason for saying NO to the Covid-19 Act
by Sabine Vuilleumier-Koch, MD
(30 May 2023) Notwithstanding the social upheavals and the numerous scientific controversies surrounding the federal government’s measures to “combat Covid-19” over the past three years, in December 2022 the Swiss parliament extended the legal basis for certain measures until mid-2024. Thanks to a successful referendum, Swiss voters will now vote on this parliamentary decision on 18 June.
There was no broad discussion of crucial issues in Switzerland either:
- How dangerous was and is the coronavirus with its various mutants really?
- Which measuring methods are actually suitable for recording the epidemiological situation?
- Should the focus of prevention continue to be on the controversial mRNA vaccinations?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been no regular reviews of the coercive measures taken. The continuation of certain measures of the Covid-19 Act now implies that they have been successful so far.
In its dispatch on the amendment of the Covid-19 Act of 3 June 2022, the Federal Council argues as follows: To protect public health, it is necessary to maintain the legal basis for selected measures, especially for the next two winter half-years.
These are the following measures, which should be available in the event of a “significant deterioration of the situation”:
- Import and use of new medicines, even if they are not yet approved in Switzerland.
- The possibility of continuing to issue Covid certificates.
- Cross-border commuters working in the health sector should be able to carry out their work even in the event of strict border controls (which are currently unlikely).
- Employers can be obliged to allow particularly vulnerable persons to work from home.1
The Swiss-German Referendum Committee2 and the “Mouvement fédératif romand“3 comprehensively refute these justifications for maintaining the measures by law. – Only the following should be mentioned here:
- There are effective, inexpensive, and well-tolerated drugs for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19, e.g., Ivermectin, the effectiveness of which has been proven by many studies4 – but the Confederation (and the WHO) have not taken these into account so far.
- “You have to stay outside” was the slogan for unvaccinated citizens during many months when Covid certificates were in use. However, it was already known at that time that even vaccinated people can transmit viruses and fall ill themselves. – The drastic effects on business, relationships and individual people have not been addressed.
- Work from home is commonplace in many businesses today – there is no need for a law.
While we in Switzerland are discussing the Covid-19 Act, the WHO is pushing ahead with the tightening of its International Health Regulations (IHR), currently valid in the 2005 version, and the drafting of a pandemic treaty. The two documents were negotiated at last week’s World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva. Lawyers warn against their adoption, among other reasons, because the WHO’s regulations are to become binding in the future, which would massively restrict the sovereignty of states in health matters.5
According to the WHO, the aim is to be better prepared for the next pandemic to avoid repeating the same mistakes. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on 5 May 2023 that he had accepted the recommendation of the “Emergency Committee” and was now putting an end to the state of alert that had existed for three years “because of Covid-19”, the International Health Emergency (PHEIC).
Currently and in the future, it is up to him, an individual person not elected by citizens, to decide whether coercive measures such as those we have experienced should be taken throughout the world.
He stressed that Covid-19 is not over as a global threat to health. The worst thing a government could do would be to let its guard down and dismantle the system it has built. –This “advice” is followed without any objections by the Federal Council, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and parliament. Now the Swiss electorate is expected to follow suit by accepting the continuation of the Covid-19 Act.
In his opening speech to the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva on 21 May 2023, the WHO Director-General welcomed President Alain Berset with the words:6
“First, let me begin by thanking Your Excellency President Berset for your personal support and partnership, and for Switzerland’s continued support and partnership for WHO and global health.”
The FOPH, with its International Affairs Division, is apparently in close contact with the WHO and “cooperates” excellently. Whether this also corresponds to the wishes of the Swiss population was never clarified.
Already a year ago, Federal Councillor Berset pleaded for a “strengthening and solid financing of the WHO” and emphasised its importance for improved pandemic preparedness. The WHO’s tightened “International Health Regulations” and the newly created “Pandemic Treaty” are to be adopted by the WHA in May 2024.
At the WHA’s “Strategic Roundtable” on 22 May 2023, WHO experts put pressure on the country representatives attending: the changes to the IHR and the pandemic treaty must be adopted as quickly as possible so that they can be passed in May 2024; it is important to show solidarity with poor countries so that they too can vaccinate their populations as comprehensively as possible in the future.
It fits perfectly that the measures mentioned above are to be valid until 30 June 2024 – this way they can be seamlessly integrated into the international regulations and imposed on the Swiss population from “the very top”...
NO to the Covid-19 Act on 18 June 2023!
1 https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/votes/20230618/covid-19-act.html
3 https://www.mouvement-federatif-romand.ch/votation-18juin2023