Staff on the other side of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were ordered on Monday to cut all communications with the World Health Organization, several federal health officials confirmed to CBS News, to comply Decree of President Trump Last week.
Beyond the call in the United States to start the one year process to officially withdraw from the financing of the United Nations Health Agency, Mr. Trump executive decree had also asked the federal agencies to “recall and reallocate” all staff of the US government to work with WHO.
The scanning directive to implement the order was issued by the deputy director of the CDC for global health John Nzengasong in an email on Monday, said an official, pending new advice for when and how the exceptions could be dug.
The CDC staff were responsible for working for the WHO who is also invited not to enter the office, the email said, pending other management advice.
Mr. Trump has long criticized WHO, blaming the organization to poorly manage COVID 19 And to say that it gets too much money from the United States, which donations Most of all countries.
To one event In Las Vegas on January 25, he said that WHO had proposed to reduce the commitment of American financing around the amount given by China.
“Maybe we would plan to do it again. I don’t know. Maybe we would do it. They have to clean it a little,” said Trump.
Former health officials tell CBS News that they are worried about the US WHO withdrawal could endanger efforts to respond to diseasesBoth undergoing the United Nations agency and also making more difficult for US officials to prepare.
The first way in which US officials sometimes intended to speak of concern epidemics were of WHO, especially in suspicious countries to work with the American authorities. The WHO is also based on experts in the disease sent by the United States and other countries to fulfill its ranks.
“As has been repeated several times, infectious diseases do not know any limits and in the world of rapid travel today, an epidemic anywhere is a threat everywhere,” said James Leduc, auxiliary professor at The medical branch of the University of Texas.
Between working for the medical research of the American army and leading the Galveston National Laboratory, Leduc worked for the CDC as an WHO and later one of the best agency’s world health officials.
“The fact is that there is no alternative to whom. Who has the world mandate which solves health problems worldwide in a coordinated manner,” said Leduc.
A spokesperson for the World Health Organization refused to comment on this decision. The Ministry of Health and Social Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Preparation of seasonal and pandemic flu
The breadpower order is before a key committee meeting next month, where CDC officials had to help WHO strains for the flu vaccine for next winter.
Manufacturers of flu vaccines and US Food and Drug Administration are counting on the data and results of this panel to decide on the shots used each fall around the northern hemisphere.
The CDC also plays a key role as an WHO “collaboration center” for the flu, serving as one of the best world laboratories to test and study the virus.
Many countries send disturbing influenza cases to the ATLANTA laboratory of the CDC for a meticulous examination of mutations which could constitute a pandemic threat, as after the death of the bird flu or pig flu.
Respond to viruses like polio and marburg
CDC personnel have been responsible for working for WHO who often serves bonds with agency’s disease experts, offering an overview of the concern for new germs that responds in the world.
Others work with other countries to trample persistent diseases, such as Global polio eradication initiative supported by the two agencies.
WHO also plays a key role in the issuance of licenses and coordination trials that make it possible to use drugs to respond to diseases, especially for small countries faced with new disease epidemics.
Several former federal health officials said that WHO has also played a key role in facilitating the response and deployment of An American vaccine to respond to an epidemic of MarburgAn Ebola type disease in Rwanda last year.
The authorities are watching closely another Marburg epidemic this year in Tanzania, which WHO announced confirming last week.
Replace American expertise at WHO
“The expertise provided by the CDC and other American government agencies is absolutely essential to the success of WHO activities and the well-being of the United States,” said Leduc.
Leduc recalled that American staff was once proud to ensure that the uniforms that work, the stages of the scientists of former opponents of the Cold War to discover the emerging threats of diseases of the Geneva Bureau of the International Organization.
“I do not think that we want, in particular as an expert in public health, to feel as if they cannot show the American flag that in these posts. Said Loyce Pace, Director of World Affairs for HHS under the Biden administration.
PACE said that there are hundreds of officials from the US health agency working with WHO. She said it is likely that other countries will likely try to make the performance to fill the vacuum left by US public health officials.
Another former federal official said that China sought to fulfill more positions in the United Nations agency, worrying some US officials in the way they could seek to use their positions.
“I hope there is a part of us who will continue to work to see this not as a weakness but as a force, to distinguish us from the other actors who do not have this approach and, frankly, have Not as effective in establishing partnerships to protect the world, “said Pace.