In an effort to unify the global response to the coronavirus, on his first day in office, President Biden overturned a decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
The Biden government announced that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, will lead the U.S. delegation to the agency’s board of directors. Dr. Fauci will begin this role with a meeting this week.
In May, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would leave the organization that is part of the United Nations. He had spent weeks helping the Chinese government cover up the extent of the coronavirus in China.
The decision of a president who had already made the world aware that he was not bound by long-standing US commitments alarmed public health experts. And on Wednesday his successor made it clear that he sees the organization as an ally, not an opponent.
“The WHO plays a vital role in the global fight against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, as well as countless other threats to global health and health security,” said Biden in a letter to António Guterres, the United States Secretary-General. “The United States will continue to be a full participant and a world leader in combating such threats and promoting global health and health security.”
At the end of May, just before it was declared that this had happened to the WHO, the Trump administration made seven demands on the organization. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the organization, was certain.
Just last week, experts from the organization came to the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began a little over a year ago. They want to study how the virus jumped from animals to humans.
The investigators have already been challenged by the Chinese government, which was aware of external scrutiny and repeatedly obstructed the team’s arrival.
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