Trump, who has also accused the WHO of mismanaging the entire crisis, cut off U.S. funding to the organization in April, according to The Washington Post. The United States is the WHO’s largest donor, giving it with more than $400 million per year, but presently owes the agency about $200 million in current and past dues, according to an article published July 7 in Time magazine. Following Trump’s declaration, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a tearful plea for all nations to pull together. In a briefing, he said, “How difficult is it for humans to unite to fight a common enemy that’s killing people indiscriminately? Can’t we understand that the divisions or the cracks between us actually are to the advantage of the virus?” The move, which would not become official until July 6, 2021 according to The New York Times, may not happen if former Vice President Joe Biden becomes president in November. As reported by the Associated Press, Biden says if elected he would reverse that decision on his first day in office. “The United States of America has been a long-standing and generous friend to WHO, and we hope it will continue to be so,” Fadéla Chaib, a spokesperson for the WHO, told Everyday Health. “With support from the people and government of the United States, WHO works to improve the health of many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.” RELATED: Coronavirus Alert: Daily Update
An Outpouring of Protest From Health Experts
The announcement from the White House has triggered a wave of concern among many in the medical community who view U.S. membership in the WHO as vital to maintaining the health and welfare of all citizens around the globe, especially as the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic. With 194 nations as members, the organization maintains a mission to provide universal healthcare to all people and to prepare for, detect, and address severe health emergencies worldwide. The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO — which comprises nearly every government in the world— prompted 750 scholars and experts in global public health, U.S. constitutional law, and international law and relations to write Congress a letter opposing the move. “Withdrawing from or cutting funding to the WHO during a global pandemic would be a dangerous action for global health and U.S. national interests,” the letter reads. “It is not overstatement to say that withdrawal will likely cost lives, American and foreign.” The group of experts pointed out that by removing itself from the WHO, America would lose access to the organization’s global system for sharing critical outbreak data and vaccines, which could slow the U.S.’s ability to return to normalcy from the current coronavirus outbreak, and leave the country more vulnerable during future pandemics. The American Medical Association voiced a similar opinion in a statement published July 7: “The Trump administration’s official withdrawal from the World Health Organization puts the health of our country at grave risk. As leading medical organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of physicians, we join in strong opposition to this decision, which is a major setback to science, public health, and global coordination efforts needed to defeat COVID-19.” RELATED: Scientists Fast-Track Research for Coronavirus Treatment and Vaccine
A Blow to Health Globally That Goes Beyond COVID-19
“I can imagine no rationale for the United States to leave the WHO, particularly in the midst of a global pandemic,” says Jennifer Horney, PhD, a professor and the founding director of the Epidemiology Program at the University of Delaware in Newark. “We live in a highly connected global world where people, animals, and viruses can move at the speed of jet travel — the WHO represents the global perspective on the coronavirus pandemic and many other critical public health concerns.” If a wealthy nation like the United States pulls out of the WHO, the poorest nations may suffer the greatest, according to Horney. In addition to battling COVID-19, countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal are dealing with outbreaks of diptheria. In South Sudan, Cameroon, Mozambique, Yemen, and Bangladesh, people are struggling with cholera. An article published April 14 in Undark magazine estimated that the number of people killed by a national measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had surpassed 6,000, the vast majority of them children under 5 years old. “Outbreaks of measles — with a reproductive rate 10 times higher than COVID-19 — are being reported in 18 of the 29 countries that have been forced to suspend measles vaccinations because their limited public health capacity forces them to direct all resources towards COVID-19,” says Horney. “The United States should be playing a leading role in supporting these nations, not withdrawing from the global body that coordinated many of our greatest global health achievements.” In an editorial published June 5 in Delaware Online, Horney highlighted some of these achievements. Since its founding in 1948, the WHO has led a global immunization campaign that eradicated smallpox in 1980 and played a key role in halving mortality from tuberculosis. The health agency has also managed a global response to the 2009 flu pandemic that rapidly identified the novel strain, established surveillance systems, and provided diagnostic testing reagents to laboratories globally. RELATED: Superspreaders: Could You Unknowingly Infect Hundreds — or Thousands — of People With the Coronavirus?
Is Some of the Criticism Leveled at the WHO Legit?
While protest against the United States withdrawal is widespread, some experts recognize that the WHO is not without it flaws and at least some of the criticism directed at the organization may be warranted. Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy, wrote May 14 in Time magazine that the WHO was slow to publicly recognize the scale of the threat posed by the outbreak in China. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t characterize the spread to the virus as a pandemic until March 11, when the virus had already been confirmed in at least 114 countries. Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the University of California in Berkeley, pointed out that statements from the WHO early in the outbreak often parroted those issued by the Chinese government, according to an April 12 article in The Atlantic. The article spotlights a tweet from the WHO on January 14 that says preliminary investigations by Chinese authorities found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Qiang says, “The WHO actually compounded Chinese authorities’ misinformation for a few weeks. That is, to me, unforgivable.” In an April 15 article in The Hill, international consultant K. Riva Levinson questioned whether the WHO yielded its objectivity in its “drive to help China prevent, protect against, and respond to disease events.” Despite these concerns, both Levinson and Bremmer view the United States leaving the WHO as a mistake. They suggest that the United States only stands to suffer if it is no longer a leader in an institution that identifies, maps, and tracks public-health emergencies. And, if America steps down, China may step up and become a more dominant force on the world stage. RELATED: COVID-19 Is Scaring People Away From Doctors’ Offices and Hospitals
Reverberations on the Home Front
Matthew Heinz, MD, a hospitalist (hospital physician) at a major medical center in Tucson, Arizona, has recently been slammed with COVID-19 cases. Arizona has been racking up some of the highest daily case numbers in the country, according to AZCentral.com. “It makes no sense to me as a front line healthcare worker to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization in the midst of a global pandemic,” says Dr. Heinz. “There are no borders when it comes to this virus. We are all the same species.” In Heinz’s view, politics has become an unfortunate and unnecessary barrier to getting the outbreak under control. “The politics in this virus is so bizarre to me,” he says. “There’s not a Republican heart attack or a Democratic stroke. The virus is programmed by nature and affects everyone regardless of party. You’re either on Team COVID or you’re on Team Human.” If anything, Heinz believes the United States should increase its support of the WHO. “We need to be doubling down,” he says, “increasing our participation, sending more scientists, sending more funding to the best of our ability to help everyone get over this.” RELATED: Mask Wars: Which Side Are You On?
