CHICKASHA – The Grady County Board of Commissioners recently considered, but did not adopt, a resolution declaring the county does not have to enforce mandates stemming from the World Health Organization’s pandemic agreement.
Grady County resident Gina Desmarais, who formed the resolution, originally presented it during the commission’s Feb. 20 meeting, but the commissioners tabled the item until Feb. 26 so the district attorney’s office could review it. The board considered the resolution again on Feb. 26 but did not act on it.
Desmarais said she was disappointed that the commission did not adopt the measure.
“I am looking to local governing bodies to resolve to assert their sovereignty and refuse to enforce within their jurisdiction any mandate originating from the WHO Pandemic Agreement and any measure that infringes on their citizens’ personal health autonomy and/ or freedom of speech,” she said in an email to a Southwest Ledger reporter. “The Grady commissioners’ decision to remain neutral on this resolution is surprising and disappointing.”
Attempts to reach Commissioners Zachary Davis, Kirk Painter and Gary Bray for comment March 1 were not immediately successful.
Desmarais’ resolution opposed the WHO’s pandemic agreement, which aims to strengthen global efforts to respond to a global pandemic such as COVID-19. The agreement’s goal is to prevent a repeat of COVID’s economic, social and health-related impact.
WHO’s member governments reviewed a draft of the agreement in December 2023 and are expected to make a decision on the text at the World Health Assembly in May, the organization said in a Dec. 7, 2023, news release.
The draft version of the agreement reaffirms the principle that WHO members have the sovereign right to make and implement laws addressing health issues, according to the release.
Desmarais said she presented the resolution to the commission because she was concerned that the WHO would approve the pandemic agreement in May, and she did not expect the federal government to oppose what she described as “this tyrannical overreach by an unelected globalist body.”
“The draft WHO Pandemic Agreement is an affront to our personal and constituted liberties, and I think it is akin to someone informing you of their intent to rob you, to come and steal something precious from you,” she said. “I am merely asking local governments to uphold what they have already promised – to support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States – in the face of a real, imminent and specific threat.”