GENEVA (AP) – The United States will resume funding for the World Health Organization and join the consortium aimed at fair sharing of coronavirus vaccines around the world, President Joe Biden’s top adviser on the pandemic said Thursday, and renewed support for an agency that the Trump administration had withdrawn from.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s swift commitment to the WHO – whose response to the pandemic has been criticized by many, but perhaps most vocal by the Trump administration – marks a dramatic and vocal shift towards a more cooperative approach to fighting the pandemic .
“I am honored to announce that the United States will remain a member of the World Health Organization,” Fauci told a virtual WHO meeting from the United States, where it was 4:10 am in Washington. It was the first public statement by a member of Biden’s government to an international audience – and a sign of the priority the new president has given to the fight against COVID-19, both at home and with global partners.
Hours after Biden’s inauguration Wednesday, he wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres saying that the US had reversed the planned WHO withdrawal, expected to take effect in July.
The WHO withdrawal was rich in symbolism – another example of America’s go-it-alone strategy under Trump. But it also had practical consequences: the US stopped funding the UN health agency – it took money from the long-time largest donor, just as the agency fought the health crisis that affects more than 2 million people worldwide. killed. The US had also withdrawn personnel from the organization.
Fauci said the Biden government will resume “regular cooperation” with the WHO and “honor its financial commitments to the organization.”
The WHO chief and others jumped in to welcome the US announcements.
“This is a good day for WHO and a good day for global health,” said Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The role of the United States, its role, global role is very, very crucial.”
The two men alluded to a warm relationship between them, with Fauci calling Tedros his ‘best friend’ and Tedros Fauci calling my brother Tony.
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called it “great news” in an email. “The world has always been a better place when the US is at the forefront of solving global health problems, including the fight against HIV / AIDS, malaria, polio and other diseases,” he said.
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke wrote on Facebook: “This will have an enormous impact on the world’s ability to fight the pandemic. It is critical that the United States is involved as a driving force and not a country looking for the exit when a global disaster rages. ”
Fauci also said Biden will issue a guideline on Thursday showing that the United States plans to join the COVAX facility, a project to deploy COVID-19 vaccines for people in need around the world – or now it is in rich or poor countries.
Under Trump, the US was the most prominent – and most entrenched – holdout of the COVAX facility, having struggled to achieve its goals of distributing millions of vaccines, due to both financial and logistical difficulties.
WHO and leaders in many developing countries have repeatedly voiced concern that poorer places could be the last to receive COVID-19 vaccines, while noting that not vaccinating large parts of the world’s population puts everyone at risk.
Fauci vowed US support, but also pointed out some of the major challenges facing the WHO. He said the US is committed to “transparency, including the events surrounding the early days of the pandemic.”
One of the Trump administration’s biggest criticisms was that the WHO was too slow to respond to the outbreak in Wuhan, China, accepting and exuberant the Chinese government’s response to it. Others have also shared that criticism – but public health experts and many countries have argued that while the organization needs reform, it remains vital.
Referring to a WHO-led study of the origin of the coronavirus by a team currently in China, Fauci said, “The international study must be robust and clear, and we look forward to evaluating it.”
He said the US would work with WHO and partner countries to “strengthen and reform” the agency, without providing specific details.
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Associated Press writers, Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.