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US presidential election 2020
ChinaDiplomacy

US under Biden set to stay in WHO, but experts say health body needs shake-up

  • President-elect’s transition website says relationship with the organisation will be ‘immediately’ restored
  • American backing may be key to the WHO’s Covax plan to distribute Covid-19 vaccines

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Health officials and experts say reforms of the Geneva-based WHO are needed. Photo: AFP
Simone McCarthy
President-elect Joe Biden has said the US will take back its mantle of international leadership in a rejection of the “America first” policy of the Donald Trump administration. It is likely the first evidence of that will be at the World Health Organization, a body that was set to lose Washington’s support and funds in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people.
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In a plan released on Sunday, the future administration vowed to “immediately restore our relationship” with the WHO. While “not perfect” the organisation was “essential to coordinating a global response during a pandemic”, an agenda on the president-elect’s transition website said.

The move would reverse Trump’s decision to exit the WHO effective July 2021 after months of accusations that the global health body – made up of 194 member states – failed to take Beijing to task over its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, which was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

While the US under Trump became the most vocal critic of the Geneva-based organisation, saying it had been compromised by China’s interests, health officials in other countries have said before that the WHO needs a shake-up and that some of its problems predate Trump.

Joe Biden tweeted in July that “Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health”. Photo: dpa
Joe Biden tweeted in July that “Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health”. Photo: dpa
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The US is by far the largest provider of funds to the WHO, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and its withdrawal would significantly hinder the global fight against health inequalities and scourges like polio and HIV/Aids – as well as Covid-19, health experts say. The latest statement from the Biden team makes good on the president-elect’s promise earlier this year.

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