Trump’s dangerous rejection of the World Health Organization

In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump has moved Remove the United States from the World Health Organizationjoining Only Soviet satellite states When trying to do it, and reduce the participation of the USA in the International Health Monitoring Agency. It is a bad recipe and puts the well -being of people around the world at risk, including Americans.

Of course, who is too political and safe, has been too deferent for China, as we saw during Covid, but although there may be a good cause to stop other international bodies, such as the United Nations Human Rights Council against Israel , mortally fighting diseases in each country serve everyone’s interest, since viruses and bacteria do not respect international borders.

It is revealing that Trump Sourded this retirement In monetary terms, but there is much more than money at stake. Global monitoring, data exchange, coordination and rapid response of the gin headquarters are what often maintains emerging infectious diseases and other health risks of unusual or even unnoticed propagation, and what It happens with these pathogens and threats to human health is that it does not fit what passport a person has.

Beyond a moral responsibility to do what we can to reduce the disease, particularly in less equipped places to do this work on your own, it is a matter of self -interest for borders these root things.

None of this means that WHO is a perfect organization or that is above legitimate criticisms. Many in the global public health sphere have attacked the organization for excessive bureaucracy, favoritism, poor management and other evils, and it is reasonable that Member States assume great membership fees to raise these problems and demand reforms .

But that is not what is happening here; Trump is looking for a complete retirement and stop all payments, which will put an appreciable dent in the agency’s budget. We may not feel the impact immediately, but we will feel it as the world as a whole becomes less healthy and more chaotic.

Some people could ask why this international apparatus matters both when we have robust biomedical research and health research systems at the national level; Leaving aside the interconnection of public health worldwide, Trump is also pointing to our national health agencies.

Several panels for the evaluation of subsidies from the National Health Institutes, responsible for originating most of American medical research, were abruptly canceled this week; These were not useless sessions of bureaucratic GAB, but panels with names such as the “Presidential Advisory Council to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria”, the type of things that we do not want a pause in which they will finance the investigation.

While some temporary interruptions are even for the course during presidential changes, employees have said The interruptions go further The usual, including terminated work offers and a total prohibition of trips and all staff “communications”. Once again, if these interruptions continue, we will only understand the serious consequences later, since crucial research does not materialize and the public health authorities are left behind in the monitoring of threats.

The spectrum of a Human Health and Services Department led by Vaccine de Chief in Chief RFK Jr. does not give us high hopes for a system committed to safeguarding ourselves. The consequences, unfortunately, will be measured in lost lives unless the administration changes the course.

– The New York Daily News