President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told scientific experts that they are planning to pull the US out of the World Health Organization (WHO), which would end a large part of the funds for WHO, reports the Financial Times:
“America is going to leave a huge vacuum in global health financing and leadership. I see no one that is going to fill the breach,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown Law, adding that the plan to withdraw “on day one” would be “catastrophic” for global health…
Ashish Jha, Biden’s former White House Covid response co-ordinator and dean of Brown University’s school of public health, said the transition team wanted Trump to withdraw on the first day because of the “symbolism” of reversing Biden’s own inauguration-day move. “There are lots of people who are going to be part of the inner circle of the administration who do not trust the WHO and want to symbolically show on day one that they are out,” he said.
(Source: Financial Times)