The US is one of the WHO’s founding members.
Jan 24, 2025 07:40 IST First published on: Jan 24, 2025 at 07:40 IST
Like his executive order to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Pact, Donald Trump’s decision to sever his country’s links with the WHO wasn’t unexpected. In his first stint at the White House, Trump had taken steps to quit the premier global health agency, accusing it of failing to incriminate China for the Covid pandemic. Hours after the inauguration of his second presidency, Trump repeated the accusations. The US president has directed his country’s agencies to “pause the transfer of any US government funds or resources to WHO”, and, “identify credible… partners to assume necessary activities previously undertaken by WHO”. His executive order is myopic regarding the UN body’s role in containing health emergencies across the world. There is no other organisation with the WHO’s reach and legitimacy that can deal with infectious diseases and devise protocols for containing cross-border outbreaks. The WHO’s expertise is also indispensable in reducing the incidence of serious non-communicable diseases such as cancer.
The US is one of the WHO’s founding members. It has historically been the largest financial contributor to the UN agency. It would, however, be reductive to see the engagement between the world’s largest economy and its premier health agency through a purely economic lens. The US is a party to two WHO treaties: The agency’s constitution and the International Health Regulations, the governing framework for epidemic preparedness and response. At the height of the Cold War, the WHO became the main portal for US-Soviet collaboration in healthcare which went on to play a seminal role in the eradication of smallpox. The organisation stewards a vast network of public health agencies, laboratories, and international scientists that constantly track novel outbreaks. US institutes like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) depend on this network for information. So does the US pharma industry. More than 20 WHO collaborating centres at the CDC and National Institutes of Health focus on US priorities, including cancer prevention and global health security. Trump’s executive order directs the US secretary of state to “cease negotiations” on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, an international treaty to prepare the world for future outbreaks. This is as great a threat to the global health security architecture as the withdrawal of US financial support.
The WHO needs reform. But deficiencies in its governance and funding structures highlighted by the Covid pandemic need to be addressed by engaging the agency, not remaining outside it. The pandemic showed that no country is immune to the caprices of pathogens. Clipping the WHO’s wings could hurt the resilience of not just poor and middle-income countries. It could also compromise the US’s preparedness against a health emergency.
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