CDC cannot speak to whom. What does that mean for World Health? : Goats and soda: npr

The sign in centers for disease control and prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC has the protection of the health of the public.

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This week, as officials from the World Health Organizations, there are meetings that discuss everything from Marburg virus in Tanzania to MPOX in the Democratic Republic of Congo, some empty seats in the room – and fewer participants in virtual meetings.

Officials from the US centers are missing for the control and prevention of diseases.

On Monday, the CDC public health officer in a memo that was sent to Division Directors, its MPs and others by John Nkengasong, the deputy director of Global Health at CDC, to Division Directors, its MPs and others, with the World Health Organization, immediately Stop communicating with the World Health Organization.

The command comes to the announcement by President Trump from the term of office that he has started the process of Pull back from the WHOA UN agency that the United States helped at Trump in 1948. Executive orderHe remembered everyone who worked on whom. The order said that the United States is not able to demonstrate unequal payments by Member States and the inability to demonstrate the independence of the inappropriate political influence of the WHO member states “because the” abuse of Covid 19 pandemic “.

According to the official procedure in which the United States ends membership, the country must give a one -year announcement. However, this ban on communication has an immediate effect and does not allow a transition period.

What the ban could mean

Officials within the CDC and global health specialists outside the organization try to understand the effects of this order for both the USA and the world.

“It’s unprecedented,” says Javier GuzmanThe director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development.

CDC works with WHO with a variety of health efforts, including continuous efforts to break open Great MPOX outbreak in parts of Africa And an outbreak of Marburg virusThis is Ebola’s cousin in Tanzania. The United States has donated more than a million vaccines to this efforts and sent teams of experts to support the local reaction.

When asked about commenting on the future of these joint efforts, a spokesman who wrote in an e -mail to NPR wrote: “We analyze developments and currently have no further information.”

“There are many people who look forward to further clarification and direction of the incoming administration,” said a CDC officer who asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press. They said they cannot remember another presidential crossing that contained a similar guideline. “I am not aware of any communication that has gone to CDC employees like this.”

A request for a comment by the CDC media team was referred to the media team for health and human services that did not respond.

How they worked together

Under many other cooperation, the two agencies also work on worldwide efforts to monitor and contain influenza. Who leads the global influenza monitoring network. Josh Michaudsays the Associate Director for Global Health Policy at KFF, says that it may be difficult for the United States to develop flu vaccine that are tailored to the current tribes of the virus every year, which circulate when scientists do not access them through The samples provided have who system.

“There could be third parties that could create some communication channels, and the US pharmaceutical companies on the private side could still have a contact,” he says. “But it definitely throws a wrench into the works of a system that is really important – not only for global health security, but also for the health of the USA.”

“It is absolutely important that the CDC and who happens over what happens. So a ban on it? I just can’t see what advantage it has, but I see that it has a massive disadvantage” Dr. Chandy JohnRyan White Center for infectious diseases and global health of Indiana University School of Medicine.

Other votes. “It is very difficult for me to see a national American interest that is brought up here. And on the contrary, I only think that it is very dangerous for Americans,” says Lawrence GostinProfessor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of the WHO Center for Global Health Law.

For example, he says, who, among other things, convened an international meeting of experts who discuss bird flu. Bird flu Was widespread in animal and wild animals in the USA without CDC representatives at the meeting. . According to Gostin, this new clamp could hinder the country’s ability to prevent people from being infected and develop medication and vaccines to combat bird flu.

“It is not only ruthless, I think it’s lawless” International health regulations And obliges to comply with his guidelines. This is a legally binding agreement that is managed by WHO, which the states demands to monitor health threats and report them to the WHO. However, there is no strong enforcement mechanism for countries that do not meet.

“We are relentlessly criticizing China that you (her) do not comply with the quick reporting and communication of the Wuhan outbreak,” says Gostin. “Why we want to be in China’s or Russia society that violates these international global health standards certainly beats me.”

Trump is not only back from WHO and kept communication between CDC and WE Health programs. Kffs Michaud calls the moment “incredibly precarious”. And he says: “It could mark a turning point for global health”, as the United States contribute to the international efforts to combat diseases.

The start of Trump’s second term, even large domestic news has not associated with global health, such as: Institutions of many federal financing and scholarship programs. This is worried about Guzman from the Center for Global Development. “Everyone is flooded with so many decisions and so many management orders and the effects (the CDC and the cooperation) are not directly that it is likely that this slips under the radar,” he says.