By Jennifer Rigby and Emma Farge
LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization is drawing up a list of reasons why the U.S. should remain in the WHO for its own good, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters, as part of an attempt by its supporters to lobby incoming President Donald Trump.
Trump moved to quit the U.N. health agency during his last presidency and is expected to take similar steps in his new administration, possibly as soon as he is inaugurated on Monday.
The U.S. is the WHO’s biggest donor, and experts agree its exit would be a blow for the Geneva agency and the health of the world more broadly. But it could also leave the U.S. out in the cold during emerging outbreaks as well as for routine disease surveillance, which could impact the country’s national security and pharmaceutical industry, the list suggests.
The WHO has not pushed publicly for a change of heart from its member state, instead saying the administration needs time and they hoped to continue the partnership for the health of the world.
The list comes at the request of prominent American global health advocates, one of them told Reuters, saying they would use it to stress the risk to the U.S. of a WHO exit.
“It would be a deep wound to the WHO, to health globally, but an even more grievous wound to the U.S. national interest and we are making that case as forcefully as we can,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.
Even if Trump announces his decision on day one of his presidency, by domestic law there is a one-year notice period before the U.S. leaves the agency, during which time the advocates – including scientists, businesses, former officials and civil society – hope to change his mind.
It is not yet clear if they will present their findings directly to the Trump transition team or via a public letter.
Other figures have also campaigned for the WHO in recent weeks, including former British prime minister and WHO envoy Gordon Brown.
Health sources said the WHO has also been holding meetings and preparing for months, and is ready to argue its case.
“I know they have been identifying activities of WHO which would still be in the interest of the U.S., even in the eyes of a Trump administration,” said a Geneva-based diplomat from a major donor country, briefed on the WHO’s preparations.
The list outlines how the U.S. outside the WHO would be deprived of vital information about any emerging disease – including H5N1 avian flu – that could become the next pandemic, the sources said.
“If we hollowed WHO out … that is going to come back to the U.S. Germs don’t respect borders,” said Gostin.
It also details the importance of access to international flu surveillance data as well as the cost for U.S. pharmaceutical companies of missing out on the latest WHO information.
The World Health Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the list.
Gostin and two other experts in America said other steps may be taken in the next 12 months if Trump signals a plan to exit, including potential lawsuits questioning whether the administration can leave without consulting Congress, which made the decision to join the WHO in 1948.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; editing by David Evans)
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