By Jennifer Rigby and Emma Farge
LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization is drawing up a list of reasons why the United States should stay at the WHO for its own good, two sources familiar with the process told Reuters, as part of an effort by its supporters to lobby President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump abandoned the UN health agency during his last term as president and is expected to take similar steps in his new administration, likely as soon as he is inaugurated on Monday.
The US is the biggest donor to the WHO, and experts agree that its departure would be a blow to the Geneva-based agency and the health of the wider world. But it could also leave the U.S. out in the cold during new outbreaks as well as for routine disease surveillance, which could affect the country’s national security and the pharmaceutical industry, the list suggests.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not publicly sought a change of heart from its member state, saying the administration needs time and that they hope to continue the partnership for global 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 a WHO exit.
“It would be a deep wound to the WHO, to global health, but an even graver wound to the US national interest, and we argue that as strongly as we can,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown. University of Washington and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for National and Global health (NS:) Law.
Even if Trump announces his decision on the first day of his presidency, there is a one-year notice period under domestic law before the US leaves the agency, during which time advocates – including scientists, companies, former officials and civil society – hope to change their minds.
It is not yet clear whether he will present his findings directly to Trump’s transition team or through a public letter.
Other figures have also campaigned for 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 that they have identified WHO activities that would still be in the interest of the US, even in the eyes of the Trump administration,” said a Geneva-based diplomat from a major donor country familiar with the WHO’s preparations.
The list describes how the US outside the WHO would be deprived of vital information about any emerging disease – including H5N1 bird flu – that could become the next pandemic, the sources said.
“If we gutted the WHO … it’s going to come back to the US. Germs don’t respect borders,” Gostin said.
It also details the importance of access to international influenza surveillance data, as well as the cost to US pharmaceutical companies of missing out on the latest World Health Organization information.
The World Health Organization did not respond to a request for comment on the list.
Gostin and two other U.S. experts said other steps could be taken in the next 12 months if Trump signals an exit plan, including potential lawsuits questioning whether the administration can leave without consulting Congress, which made the decision to join WHO in 1948.
