The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response says global collaboration is the Only Way to Manage Pandemic Threats.
According to the panel, the United States exit from the World Health Organization will undermine the capacity of the U.S and the world to be prepared and able to respond to health emergencies
A Statement from the RH Helen Clark and HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Co-Chairs of the Independent Panel says the intent of the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) should be seen as a grave error.
“This will put Americans at greater risk of outbreaks, death and economic losses both from within and outside the United States,” say the Panel officials.
They point out that a pandemic, by its very definition, spares no country and incurs enormous and lasting costs to human lives, livelihoods and economies in the billions and trillions of dollars.
“Through global collaboration, with the World Health Organization at the hub, pandemic threats can be quickly identified, and measures can be recommended to stop them in their tracks.”
Since the COVID-19 emergency that led to an estimated 27 million excess deaths including the deaths of some 1.2 million Americans, countries have come together to find new ways to collaborate and help to ensure that new pathogens are identified and reported rapidly.
Tools like tests and vaccines are shared strategically and equitably to address outbreaks at their source and therefore effectively makes every country safer.
“Every country in the world can be the source of a new pandemic threat.”
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response points out that currently, the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is circulating in hundreds of herds of dairy cattle in the United States and in flocks of wild and domestic birds.
“This is seen as a risk to the health of Americans and to people everywhere. One single mutation could trigger a fatal type of influenza that would spread at speed from person-to-person and signal the start of a new pandemic that would be deadlier and costlier than any outbreak seen in modern history.”
So far, according to the IPPR the response to H5N1 in the United States has been inadequate. If efforts are not accelerated, the U.S could be the source of a new pandemic.
“When a country exits the World Health Organization, it abandons shared responsibility for preparedness and response to a pandemic threat. It also loses critical influence at the WHO to help to make the organization even stronger and a more effective gatherer of information and distiller of advice.” They stated.
When The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response reviewed the international response to COVID-19 in 2020-2021, including the role of the World Health Organization, it found that if anything, the WHO should be more predictably and sustainably funded.
It recommended stronger International Health Regulations (IHRs) that would lead to faster and more forceful reporting of outbreaks. The Independent Panel believes the IHRs as amended in 2024, fully implemented, can offer that to every country of the world.
“We urge that the United States remain in the Health Organization, to ensure a stronger WHO, and that American experts working in the Organization, and around the world, remain fully engaged in global pandemic preparedness and response.”
“That is what will keep Americans, and the world safer from pandemic threats. Working effectively together is the only way to beat invisible pathogens that will infect anyone, anywhere, and continue until they have nowhere else to go.”