World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has issued a new warning about the likelihood of Disease X breaking out, telling global world leaders it is “a matter of when, not if” a new pathogen and pandemic will strike.

Tedros, who goes by his first name, told attendees at the World Government Summit in Dubai earlier his week he gave a similar warning in 2018 that a pandemic was likely to hit, and he was proven right with the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. 

Complaining that the world is still ill-prepared for a new pandemic, Tedros once again touted the urgent need for a global treaty to be agreed upon by May and dismissed suspicions of it being a WHO power grab as outlandish.

He called the treaty “mission critical for humanity.”

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has issued a new warning about the likelihood of Disease X breaking out, telling global leaders it is a matter of when not if a new pathogen and pandemic will strike. (Ryan Lim/AFP via Getty Images)

“These claims are utterly, completely, categorically false. … Anyone who says it will is either uninformed or lying.”

Critics, including Advancing American Freedom (AAF), argue the legally binding treaty would cede sovereignty to a global organization and that it amounts to a power grab. The AAF is a nonprofit advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

Tedros said there is a draft copy of the agreement on the WHO website and urged people to read it for themselves. 

In pitching the treaty, he absolved the WHO of imposing lockdowns and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory, center, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where many believe the COVID-19 virus emanated. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

“We cannot allow this historic agreement, this milestone in global health, to be sabotaged by those who spread lies, either deliberately or unknowingly.

“Let me be clear: WHO did not impose anything on anyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not lockdowns, not mask mandates, not vaccine mandates.

“We don’t have the power to do that, we don’t want it and we’re not trying to get it.”

The WHO faced strong criticism from around the world over its slow response to investigating China for the COVID outbreak. A WHO team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic also downplayed the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab near Wuhan, China.