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 at the WHO for its own good, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters, as part of an effort by its supporters to lobbying incoming President Donald Trump.
Trump decided to leave the UN health agency during his last presidency and is expected to take similar steps in his new administration, possibly once he is inaugurated on Monday.
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The US is the WHO’s largest donor, and experts agree its departure would be a blow to the Geneva agency and the world’s health more broadly. But it could also leave the US out in the cold during emerging outbreaks and routine disease surveillance, which could impact national security and the country’s pharmaceutical industry, the list suggests.
The WHO has not publicly urged a change of heart from its member state, saying instead that the government needs time and hoped to continue the partnership for world health.
The list comes at the request of prominent US global health advocates, one of them told Reuters, saying they would use it to highlight the risk to the US of leaving the WHO.
“It would be a deep wound for the WHO and for healthcare worldwide, but an even more serious wound for the US national interest, and we are making this case as strongly as we can,” said Lawrence Gostin, 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 the first day of his presidency, under domestic law there is a one-year notice period before the U.S. leaves the agency, during which time advocates — including scientists, companies, former officials and civil society — hope to change your mind.
It is not yet clear whether 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 make its case.
“I know they have identified WHO activities that would still be in the interests of the US, even in the eyes of a Trump administration,” said a Geneva-based diplomat from a major donor country briefed on the preparations for the WHO.
The list outlines how the U.S. outside the WHO would be deprived of vital information about any emerging disease — including the H5N1 bird flu — that could become the next pandemic, the sources said.
“If we erode the WHO… it comes back to America’s germs not respecting borders,” Gostin said.
It also describes the importance of access to international flu surveillance data and the costs to US pharmaceutical companies if they miss 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 could be taken in the next 12 months if Trump signals a plan to leave, including possible lawsuits questioning whether the administration can leave without consulting Congress, which in 1948 decided to join the WHO.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; Editing by David Evans)
