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Written by Jennifer Rigby and Emma Farge
LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization is compiling a list of reasons why the US should remain at the WHO for its own benefit, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters, as part of the effort of its sponsors to support. Incoming President Donald Trump.
Trump moved out of the UN health center during his last presidency and is expected to take similar steps in his new administration, possibly as soon as he takes office on Monday.
The US is the largest donor to the WHO, and experts believe that its exit would be a disasterfront world. But it could leave the US out in the cold during the emerging crisis as well as routine disease testing, which could affect national security and the pharmaceutical industry, the list suggests.
WHO has not publicly pushed for a change of heart from its members, instead saying that the system needs time and they hope to continue cooperation for global health.
This list comes at the request of prominent advocates of global health in America, one of them told Reuters, saying that they will use it to emphasize the risk to the US of leaving the WHO.
“It would be a serious blow to the WHO, to health around the world, but it’s an even more painful blow to the American national interest and we’re doing that as hard as we can,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of health the best of the world in Georgetown. University of Washington and director of the WHO National Collaborating Center and Global Health (NS:) Law.
Although Trump announced his decision on the first day of his presidency, by domestic law there is a one-year notice period before the US leaves the center, during which advocates – including scientists, businesses, former officials and civil society – they hope to change attitudes.
It is not yet clear whether they will present their findings directly to Trump’s transition team or in a public letter.
Other figures have also campaigned for the WHO in recent weeks, including former British prime minister and WHO representative Gordon Brown.
Health sources said that the WHO has also been holding meetings and preparing for months, and is ready to argue its case.
“I know that they have been announcing the activities of the WHO that will still be in the interest of the US, even in the eyes of the Trump administration,” said a representative in Geneva from a major donor country, referring to WHO preparations. .
The list explains how the US outside the WHO will be deprived of vital information about any emerging disease – including the H5N1 avian flu – that could become the next pandemic, the sources said.
“If we take down the WHO … it will go back to the U.S. Viruses do not respect borders,” Gostin said.
It also details the importance of access to international influenza diagnosis data as well as the cost to US pharmaceutical companies of losing the latest WHO information.
The World Health Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the list.
Gostin and two other U.S. experts said other steps could be taken in the next 12 months if Trump signs the withdrawal plan, leave without consulting Congress, which decided to join the WHO in 1948.
