Name: Trump abandoned the WHO. Biden will rejoin the agency on day one in office.
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Trump abandoned the WHO. Biden will rejoin the agency on day one in office.

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The president-elect’s transition team confirmed Biden will quickly reverse Trump’s decision.transition team has confirmed the president-elect will reverse a on his first day in office, winning praise from experts who welcome the end of Trump’s isolationist approach.In July, amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, President Trump formally notified the United Nations of America’s intention to , accusing the WHO of being “.”While the global health body’s role in the , Georgetown Law global health professor called the decision to withdraw during a pandemic “the most ruinous in modern presidential history.”Trump’s July move wasn’t going to take effect for a year, since UN members are required to give 12 months’ notice. And at the time it was announced, Biden tweeted that if he were elected, he’d immediately rejoin WHO “and restore our leadership on the world stage.”Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the and restore our leadership on the world stage. — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden)On Sunday, Biden’s press secretary told Vox the president-elect will proceed with that plan, keeping America’s membership in the .RelatedGlobal health experts, including critics of the WHO, welcomed the news. “The pandemic is a global event and we have one global health agency. It’s not perfect, but there is only one health body that has credibility across the planet and that’s the WHO,” said , assistant professor of microbial diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, who added he was “glad that [Biden] has jettisoned the isolationism of the Trump years.”When asked for comment about the president-elect’s decision, the WHO directed Vox to a tweet in which the and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and welcomed the opportunity to work with them:Congratulations to President-elect &amp; Vice President-Elect ! My colleagues and I look forward to working with you and your teams. Crises like the pandemic show the importance of global solidarity in protecting lives and livelihoods. Together!— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros)From writing the playbook on how to respond to an epidemic, leading the effort to and , and, America has long been the world leader in global health, contributing more . These efforts date back more than a century, and include and being the .But Trump made — including multilateral global health efforts — a priority of his administration.Restoring America’s reputation in this arena will take more than rejoining the WHO, however — especially at a time when China has been filling the void Trump left behind.Trump and used the agency as a , often confusing what the WHO has the power to do, University of Edinburgh’s global health chair in Foreign Policy. “The WHO cannot point fingers, do investigations, or force countries to reveal information if they don’t want to. It is a member-state body that works through consensus, soft norms, and diplomacy.”Trump wasn’t alone in his criticisms of China and the health agency. As , the and have reported, China was slow to warn the world about the virus and has been opaque about its investigations into the pandemic’s origins, . Instead of calling attention to these problems, the WHO has frequently praised China, and as the Times reported, to and leverage with a powerful country.Even so, in backing away from the WHO, the Trump administration left a void in global health leadership. “If we weren’t part of WHO, other countries will step in and fill the void and the US will lose key relationships and influence around global health strategy,” said , director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And that’s exactly what has happened.When Trump announced his decision to pull funding from the agency, China’s President Xi Jinping pledged .At before an October deadline, China also joined , the effort to develop and equitably distribute 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines before the end of 2021.The US under Trump is one of the only major economies to not yet join Covax, and Biden’s transition team has not disclosed whether the new administration plans to participate in the effort. But global health experts viewed joining Covax — if Biden can — as a key way America can begin to restore its global health reputation.“[Biden will] have his hands full mending burned bridges in the international community, and it won’t happen overnight,” said , co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute Geneva. “It’s not just weakened diplomatic relations — the US has also lost a lot of credibility as a source of public health expertise.”Before the arrival of the coronavirus, the US was in an extremely strong position to respond to a pandemic in terms of resources and expertise. But Trump did not build on those advantages, instead claiming concerns about and politicizing the response to the pandemic.As a result, America has had some of the : the most cases and deaths reported of any country (, as of November 9).In addition to joining Covax, Moon and Gostin suggested the Biden administration should consider boosting financial support to WHO and cooperating with Europe and China on updating the international rules that govern pandemic responses.“Biden says he wants to heal America but he has to heal our relationships with our allies and international institutions, too,” Gostin said.Another bold move would be sharing American health technology — such as vaccine discoveries — with the world to help end this pandemic, Moon added.“A lot of this technology is privately held by companies, but much of it has been developed with federal tax dollars, with help from government scientists and public procurement guarantees,” she said. “This would be a powerful signal that a Biden presidency won’t be back to business as usual — when medicines were seen primarily as a US export — but that he’ll show real leadership in global health.”Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.Understand how policy impacts people. Delivered Fridays.

The president-elect’s transition team confirmed Biden will quickly reverse Trump’s decision.transition team has confirmed the president-elect will reverse a on his first day in office, winning praise from experts who welcome the end of Trump’s isolationist approach.In July, amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, President Trump formally notified the United Nations of America’s intention to , accusing the WHO of being “.”While the global health body’s role in the , Georgetown Law global health professor called the decision to withdraw during a pandemic “the most ruinous in modern presidential...

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Health journalist working on a book about nutrition, metabolism and, obesity. Formerly @voxdotcom, @MIT Knight Fellow etc  Mastodon @juliaoftoronto@masto.ai

Julia Belluz

Vox is a liberal-leaning American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix.

Trump abandoned the WHO. Biden will rejoin the agency on day one in office.

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