Trump Must Keep the US in the World Health Organization
The global institution is standing up to China and open to making America’s financial burden more equitable.
Needed more than ever.
Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
One truth traveled the world with Covid-19: When infectious diseases spread, no one is safe until everyone is safe. If no mechanism for international health cooperation existed, it would have to be created.
Fortunately, we have a good one: the World Health Organization. Now, with incoming President Donald Trump considering pulling the US out of the WHO on “day one” of his presidency, we must reinforce the idea that pathogens do not respect borders. This has been recognized since at least 1851, when the first international health organization was created to deal with the carnage caused by cholera.