The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a mistake, according to a new commentary published by senior members of the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
The notice of withdrawal was delivered July 6 and would go into effect exactly one year later, on July 6, 2021. ACC’s leadership noted that “we need a strongly coordinated and unprecedented global effort” to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and it is the country’s “moral responsibility” to lead during this challenging time.
ACC President Athena Poppas, MD, helped pen the commentary. She was joined by Hani Najam, MD, chair of the ACC Assembly of International Governors; Daniel Pineiro, MD, a member of the ACC Board of Trustees; and Neal Kovach, the ACC’s division vice president of global market strategy.
“Diseases don't respect geographic and political boundaries, and history has shown consistently that clinicians push the field of medicine forward when they operate above the political fray and drive people-to-people engagement to build a better future,” the authors wrote. “It is for this reason that we are disappointed by the U.S. decision to withdraw from the WHO.”
Poppas et al. emphasized that the ACC has always been a global organization at heart, establishing chapters in 80 different countries. Withdrawing from the WHO, they added, “undermines the college’s vision of a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and patient outcomes.”
The team did acknowledge that the WHO could have considered “different approaches and improved strategies” to manage the pandemic. With the pandemic continuing, however, supporting and engaging the organization is “more important now than ever.”
“Now is a time for the world to pull together and present a unified front to combat the COVID-19 pandemic most effectively,” the authors concluded. “It seems we are still in the midst of the first wave of cases with low- and middle-income countries still far from their peak. Both a vaccine and game-changing treatments may be far off.”
Read the full commentary here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.