The state of Illinois has joined a World Health Organization pandemic response network after the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the WHO.
President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew the United States from the organization over what it called the “mishandling” of the COVID pandemic by the WHO. Trump signed an executive order in January initiating that process.
The move drew criticism from several state governments, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing last week that his state would join the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN), and now the state of Illinois has followed suit.
In a press release announcing the move, Gov. J.B. Pritzker criticized Trump for “undermining science” by withdrawing the United States from WHO, and promised that joining the response network will have positive effects for Illinoisans in the event of another public health crisis.
“By withdrawing from the World Health Organization, Donald Trump has undermined science and weakened our nation’s ability to detect and respond to global health threats. I refuse to sit idly by and let that happen,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “By joining the World Health Organization’s coordinated network, GOARN, we are ensuring that our public health leaders – and the public – have the information, expertise, and partnerships they need to protect the people of our state. Across our state and alongside valued partners around the world, Illinois will continue to put science, preparedness, and people first.”
Trump had signed an executive order on the first day of his term calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization within a year, and took another step in that process in his January executive order, citing the group’s handling of the COVID pandemic and criticizing the amount of money the U.S. invested in its programs.
Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told NBC News that the withdrawal would make the U.S. and the rest of the world more vulnerable to a damaging pandemic.
“It’s not really the right decision, I want to say it bluntly,” he said.
Experts warned NBC News that the decision could leave the U.S. in a bad position to conduct disease surveillance and preparation efforts, particularly in responding to each year’s strain of the flu.
Nearly 10,000 people in the U.S. have died of the flu during the current flu season and more than 18 million have been diagnosed with the illness, according to federal data.
Jesse Bump, a public health expert at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, told NBC News that the withdrawal from the WHO was an “act of monumental stupidity.”
“The reason this matters, in the most immediate sense, is that WHO has a network of 127 laboratories all around the world, and those laboratories detect and sequence flu strains,” Bump said. “WHO is sort of like a library, and the U.S. has had a card to walk right in, get the information you want. We no longer have access. We don’t have that library card.”
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/fVNAKSo
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