Why Trump's Decision to Leave the WHO Is Bad for Public Health Everywhere—Including the U.S.
No one wins if the U.S. leaves the World Health Organization.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly signalled he would cease U.S. funding from the WHO, and has placed the blame for the global spread of COVID-19 on the agency (based on largely unfounded arguments and either misleading facts or falsehoods). On May 18, he threatened that if the WHO did not commit to “major substantive improvements within the next 30 days,” he would make the temporary freeze of U.S. funding to WHO permanent, and “reconsider” membership in the organization. Eleven days later, without even specifying what improvements he desired to see, Trump announced that the U.S. would be terminating its relationship with the WHO.
Although it’s not possible to know how everyone in the global community will interpret Trump’s rhetoric, the president’s vague message could signal a broader desire to relinquish responsibilities as part of the global community. The lack of specificity “suggests that the message being sent isn’t so much ‘we want to work constructively to create reform in WHO operations’ but more ‘the U.S. no longer wants to be part of the global public health community,’” says TIME senior editor Elijah Wolfson.
The U.S. is the single biggest funder of the WHO, bankrolling more than 15% of the agency’s total funding. During the WHO’s latest funding cycle, the U.S. contributed $893 million—more than twice as much as any other country.
Important programs, like preventative health and nutrition initiatives, and those that focus on tropical disease research, HIV and hepatitis, and tuberculosis, could likely be on the chopping block if the U.S. pulls out for good.
Trump has faced widespread criticism for his hostility towards the WHO. Just this week, philanthropist Bill Gates expressed his disappointment with Trump’s actions. “WHO is important for all the global health work that we do,” Gates told reporters in a teleconference this week, STAT News reported. “Everyone should make sure that if we need to improve the WHO, that’s what we do, but that we stay together.” Gates said he may consider speaking with Trump about the WHO withdrawal announcement, although he has not done so yet. ““I’m hopeful it’ll turn into a desire for improvement rather than a withdrawal,” he said.
Trump’s words don’t immediately end the U.S.-WHO relationship. But if the U.S. does follow through and permanently sever ties with the WHO, it won’t only affect public health abroad. The U.S. would lose important global health communication channels, which could be essential when responding to a global pandemic like the one we’re facing today, as well as influence. “The WHO’s focus has been steered in significant part by U.S. voluntary contributions—because the U.S. can earmark its voluntary contributions for specific programs, it has a huge impact on which programs the WHO focuses on,” Wolfson says.
More than 6.4 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time last night, and more than 385,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 100,000 confirmed cases:
The Global Vaccine Summit, a virtual event hosted by the U.K., kicked off today. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped it would provide a moment for the world to come together. “To defeat coronavirus, we must focus our collective ingenuity on the search for a vaccine and ensure that countries, pharmaceutical companies and international partners like the World Health Organization cooperate on a scale beyond anything we’ve seen before,” Johnson said in his opening remarks. Johnson called for using the “collective purchasing power of GAVI, the vaccine alliance, to make that future vaccine affordable and available to all who need it.”
In Europe, important events are still being canceled; France said today that it would cancel the annual military parade for Bastille Day, celebrated on July 14. Instead of the traditional march of soldiers, there will be a smaller ceremony to honor health care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Germany, which has slowly started emerging from lockdown, is injecting €130 billion into its economy as part of a second economic stimulus package to remedy the economic harm caused by the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced yesterday. The new measures include funds to provide an additional €300 per child and temporarily lowering value-added tax rates.
In Latin America, which has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, Brazil is continuing to open up parts of the country even though it reported its highest-yet number of COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day yesterday.
The WHO yesterday resumed a study looking at whether hydroxychloroquine could be an effective coronavirus treatment. The WHO had temporarily stopped people from enrolling in the trial because of concerns about the malaria drug’s negative effects on the heart. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said in yesterday’s press briefing that the agency’s board reviewed the data concerning heart risks and found “no reasons to modify the trial.”
The Situation in the U.S.
The total number of COVID-19 diagnoses in the U.S. surpassed 1.8 million as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and the death toll climbed to more than 107,000.
On June 3, there were 19,699 new cases and 995 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
In many states across the country, there has been a troubling trend: new daily cases are increasing. Florida reported its highest daily increase in cases since the pandemic began—more than 1,400 in the last 24 hours. Utah has seen more than 200 new cases every day for the last week, the Salt Lake Tribunereports, and the state yesterday reported its second largest one-day spike in cases since the pandemic began. In South Carolina, health officials noted yesterday that reopening the state may be to blame for recent increases in coronavirus cases.
The U.S. has been woefully underprepared for a pandemic for a long time, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said today at a House Appropriations hearing about the coronavirus response. “This pandemic has also highlighted the shortcomings of our public health system that has been under-resourced for decades.” He pointed in particular to the nation’s “public health IT infrastructure,” saying that it “requires modernization, to support and collect reportable, reliable, comprehensive and timely data.”
Meanwhile, black communities are fighting a deadly two-pronged battle: against the coronavirus pandemic, which disproportionately infects and kills them, and against institutional racism. George Floyd dealt with both. He tested positive for the coronavirus on April 3, an official autopsy report reveals. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office’s report notes there is no reason to believe the virus had anything to do with Floyd’s death.
As states across the country reopen businesses, some dire economic effects of the pandemic are being eased—at least in the short term. Nearly 1.9 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week. That’s high, but also represents the ninth straight week in which applications have declined since a peak in mid-March. Congress is still trying to help out struggling business owners. The U.S. Senate yesterday passed a bill that would give business owners more time to use the emergency money set aside for them under the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as provide more flexibility in how they can use the funds. The legislation now heads to President Donald Trump for final approval.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 3, 11 PM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
What Melinda Gates Is Worried About
The co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spoke with TIME health reporter Jamie Ducharme about her biggest concerns during the pandemic: the effects of the U.S. pulling out of the WHO and worries that a potential vaccine will not be distributed equitably. Read more here.
COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months
While most cases of the coronavirus are mild or asymptomatic with patients recovering after about two weeks, many of those infected say they have been dealing with serious COVID-19 symptoms for months, The Atlantic reports. Read more here.
Tear Gas Is Way More Dangerous Than Police Let On
In the midst of a respiratory disease pandemic, the tear gas used by police—often against peaceful protesters—can cause long-term lung damage, ProPublica reports. “I felt like I was choking to death,” one protester said. Read more here.
Teenagers On the Frontlines
Many teens have been working full-time in grocery stores, filling jobs that are crucial during the pandemic, The Washington Post reports. Read more here.
Stranded at Sea
The coronavirus pandemic has left tens of thousands of merchant ship crew members stranded at sea for months, the Associated Press reports. These seafarers—essential for global trade and the provision of vital goods—don’t know when they will be able to see their family again. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Sanya Mansoor, and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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