UPDATE: The United States has officially severed ties with the World Health Organization (WHO), a decision that raises urgent concerns about global flu surveillance, administration officials announced Thursday. This move comes amid a severe flu season, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that over 18 million people have fallen ill and nearly 10,000 lives lost, including 32 children.
“We will continue to lead on global health, but it will not be done through the WHO,” stated an official from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during a press call. Instead, the U.S. plans to collaborate with other nations and private organizations, though details on these partnerships remain vague.
The decision to exit WHO raises red flags among infectious disease experts. They warn that the lack of access to WHO’s extensive network of 127 laboratories worldwide could create dangerous blind spots in tracking and responding to flu outbreaks. As the U.S. prepares for an annual WHO meeting on February 27, 2025, which determines vaccine strains, officials have not confirmed if the U.S. will participate.
Jesse Bump, a global public health expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, criticized the decision as “an act of monumental stupidity.” He emphasized the importance of WHO’s laboratory network for detecting and sequencing flu strains, stating, “We no longer have access. We don’t have that library card.”
Dr. Judd Walson, chair of the department of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, added that without a unifying organization like WHO, comparing infectious disease data between countries becomes “extraordinarily difficult.” This lack of cohesion can hinder responses to flu strains, such as the currently circulating H3N2 subclade K, which has shown significant prevalence this season.
The move to break away from WHO has roots dating back to the first Trump administration. In April 2020, President Trump accused WHO of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a formal notice of withdrawal sent on the first day of his second term in January 2025. An HHS official stated, “We relied on them, and they failed… There was just no path forward for us.”
Health experts express serious concerns about the implications of this withdrawal. Stephanie Psaki, a senior fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health, warned that the U.S. may now be more vulnerable than before the pandemic, stating, “These decisions are not being made based on a strategy… They’re being made based on frustrations or vendettas from six years ago.”
As the flu season continues to escalate, the U.S. faces an urgent need for robust disease surveillance. Health officials and the public alike are now left questioning the impact of this significant policy shift on future health crises. The global health community will be watching closely as the U.S. navigates this new path in managing infectious diseases.
