Standing at a podium in front of an American flag, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looked straight into the camera and said what no other official has dared to say: “We are rejecting the World Health Organization’s amendments to the International Health Regulations. And I want to explain why.” With that, the United States made it clear: we’re walking away from a treaty that would have handed sweeping authority to an unelected global body, letting them dictate pandemic response policies from lockdowns to travel bans to medical mandates. “These regulations establish the legal framework that gives countries rights and responsibilities for managing public health events with global impact,” Kennedy explained. “And we’re not handing those rights over to the WHO.” The message couldn’t have been more direct: health emergencies in the United States will be handled by Americans, not bureaucrats in Geneva.