Trump Administration Reportedly Working on Alternative to WHO Surveillance and Outbreak Response Programs
The U.S. officially withdrew from WHO in January, and these efforts would cost roughly three times as much as the country's past contributions to the organization to stay enrolled.
The Trump administration is reportedly working to develop an alternative to the surveillance and outbreak response programs provided by the WHO. CIDRAP has the news.
The HHS is seeking “up to $2 billion a year to build a worldwide disease-monitoring system that would ‘recreate systems such as laboratories, data-sharing networks, and rapid-response systems’ that the U.S. once helped build for the WHO. The [Washington Post] notes that the price tag is roughly three times the $680 million the U.S. government contributed annually to the WHO before it left the organization.”
HPN previously reported on the U.S. withdrawing from the WHO, which officially happened on January 22. The Trump administration claimed the agency had “abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States.” A joint statement from HHS secretary Kennedy and Marco Rubio claimed the organization “pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests.”
The decision to leave has been “widely condemned by global health and infectious disease experts, who’ve warned that it will jeopardize disease surveillance and the ability to keep the country safe from outbreaks.”
