WHO counters Musk's claims about new treaty on pandemic

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has often been involved in Twitter spats, and the latest to join the list is the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Musk took to Twitter on Thursday and asked member countries not to "cede authority" to the health agency. He made the comments as countries discuss a global accord to help prevent future pandemics.

"Countries should not cede authority to WHO," Musk wrote in response to a video of Australian politician Malcolm Roberts criticising the organisation.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quick to respond to the claims and tweeted: "Countries aren't ceding sovereignty to @WHO. The #PandemicAccord won't change that. The accord will help countries better guard against pandemics."

Later, he addressed the claims during a press conference and said that the claims about the pandemic treaty were "quite simply false" and "fake news."

"If any politician or businessperson, or anyone at all is confused about what the pandemic accord is and isn't, we would be more than happy to discuss it and explain it," Tedros said, in a reference to Musk's comments.

The WHO member countries are still holding discussions on the treaty, with its final text expected to go to a vote next year.

Musk is known to speak his mind and address current affairs issues on Twitter. He has had spats with other prominent people in the past as well.

In 2017, tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk had a social media spat about artificial intelligence. First, and for quite some time now, Musk aired his concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it could potentially start thinking for itself, rise up against us and exterminate the human race.

Then Zuckerberg, during one of his Facebook question-and-answer sessions said he had some "pretty strong opinions" on Musk's fear of AI.

The Facebook boss went on: "I think you can build things and the world gets better, and with AI especially, I'm really optimistic. I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios are...I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways, I think it is pretty irresponsible."

Zuckerberg goes on to discuss how advances in AI could potentially lead to "so many improvements in the quality of our lives". He then added that "if you're arguing against AI, you're arguing against safer cars that aren't going to have accidents."

Two days later, Twitter user Darren Cunningham said Zuckerberg's comments were aimed to "blast" Musk's warnings, who tagged Musk's handle in his tweet. Musk replied: "I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited."

Musk was recently involved in a Twitter spat with a specially-abled employee as well. He had to later issue an apology for the same. Haraldur Thorleifsson had to take to Twitter to ask Musk whether he was still employed with the firm or not. He waited for days before he finally decided to directly question him.

"Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?" he wrote in a Tweet. The tweet did not go down well with Musk, who proceeded to question Thorleifsson about his work, his disability, and his need for accommodations.

He went on to add that Thorleifsson has a "prominent, active Twitter account and is wealthy." The reason "he confronted me in public was to get a big payout," added Musk.

However, he realised his mistake later in the day and tweeted: "I would like to apologize to Halli for my misunderstanding of his situation. It was based on things I was told that were untrue or, in some cases, true, but not meaningful." Thorleifsson has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair to move around. He joined Twitter in 2021.