The United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw US from the World Health Organization (WHO), on his first day in office.
The withdrawal order echoed Trump’s first term in office, when he cut ties with the WHO (May 2020), for their alleged “China-centric” approach – at a time global health administrators were dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reacting to the latest development, Soumya Swaminathan, former Chief Scientist with WHO, told businessline, “This is a retrogressive step for global health. We know now everything is interlinked. Infectious diseases spread … So, for most global threats to health, you need international collaboration.” Swaminathan echoed the concern of many in the public health community – that global health programmes could be seriously impacted by the US move.
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Key support
There are “downsides” for the US and the WHO, she said. It’s not just about financial support, there’s also technical collaboration between scientists, countries and Governments of member states, she pointed out.
The WHO is “the only multilateral body on health”, and it’s also a standard setting body, she added. The agency sets “balanced guidelines” by involving experts representing different countries. The US has a huge amount of scientific expertise, she said, and “they play a very important role in all of the WHO’s processes and guidelines and decision making,”, which they would lose by pulling out. They also lose access to information the WHO collects through, for example, the influenza and other networks that pool information. These resources are used in updating vaccines, for example, she added.
Foreign media reports quote the US President saying, the US contributed about $500 million to the WHO, compared to China’s $39 million. Meanwhile, the WHO hoped the US would “reconsider” its decision, and engage in “constructive dialogue” to maintain the partnership. The US is a founding member of the WHO (1948) and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other Member States, it added.
