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Trump’s Plan to Leave the WHO Is a Health Disaster

The exit will cut a huge chunk from the World Health Organization’s budget, but the short-term financial gain for the US could come at the cost of disease outbreaks flaring up across the world.

While the WHO has a far-reaching remit, ranging from advice on essential medicines to public policy recommendations on everything from tobacco and drug use to road safety, it is arguably most impactful when it comes to the surveillance of potentially problematic new diseases, such as bird flu, and coordinating an international response. According to Sten Vermund, chief medical officer of the Global Virus Network and another coauthor of The Lancet article, what happens next depends on the reactions of other countries and nongovernment organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which all provide the WHO with significant funding. Gostin cites how the US relies on WHO data every year to effectively update the seasonal influenza vaccine, while Vermund explains that financially speaking, it is far more efficient for the US to fund the WHO to help “snuff out” diseases at their source, rather than trying to tackle them when they arrive in the country.

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