zlacker

Beside the danger of adding function to an infectious virus, the biggest danger is the complete politicization of the virus. The WHO has changed their tune back and forth, often vehemently with little to back up its position. In that light the US should consider withdrawing completely from this body.

>>mc32+(OP)
The US just rejoined after Biden reversed Trumps withdrawal.

>>mgamac+01
Here's one article about the Who reversal:

"The scientific community applauded President Joe Biden's decision to rejoin the World Health Organization and other global efforts designed to stop and prevent COVID-19."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/01/22/scient...

>>mgamac+12
HN is reflexive with downvotes. It's not personal.

A response of "Trump did thing, Biden undid thing" after a comment of "US should do thing" can be interpreted as support of Trump and criticism of Biden.

This is not a good thing to be true. Thus, it is downvoted.

>>mc32+(OP)
The WHO is not an organization with a military or the power to enforce anything. It’s completely at the mercy of the member states to pressure each other to allow it to do its job.

The reality is that it was up to the member states to pressure China in early 2020 to release the information they should have shared. And as the only member state as large or larger than China, this was the US’s job. At the time, however, the Trump administration was entirely focused on closing a trade deal with China that Trump could use in his election campaign. Which is why the US said nothing which prevented the WHO from getting the support they needed to investigate the origins of the pandemic.

For the first few months the US, and especially Trump, was basically going on about how well Xi Jinping was handling everything.

>>mc32+(OP)
What is withdrawal going to do? Why not work to get it right instead?

>>bpodgu+g2
you're right... I updated the post to remove the comment.

>>addict+N2
This is what Trump was saying February of last year instead of giving WHO the support that it needed to push China.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-praises-xi-for-han...

It’s precisely the vacuum created by the US’s voluntary defanging of itself in multilateral institutions that has allowed China to resist these institutions and even take control of some of them. The answer to that isn’t to continue unilaterally reducing its own power.

>>jayd16+33
Conversely what good is it belonging to an organization which has no agency and does whatever it’s told to do?

Better form a new org that is apolitical and concerns itself with promulgating health and disease prevention rather than some political agenda?

>>mc32+B3
That's literally the whole point of the WHO. Leaving it would mean either a) starting a "new" version and asking all the same people to join it (which seems to be what you're suggesting; what purpose would that serve?) or b) having no forum at all for global coordination over health crises.

>>mc32+B3
Because WHO does so much more than finding out where a disease started.

>>mc32+B3
What do you feel an apolitical organization would look like on the world stage?

>>mc32+(OP)
Of course it has! Our knowledge of the virus and disease has changed quite a lot since December 2019. Initially we had no idea about the transmission rate, survivability in air or on surfaces, contact transmission, transmission to other species, etc. What should they have done?

If anything they were cautious before February 2020.

>>mc32+B3
There is no such thing as an apolitical organisation. That’s the definition of politics.

It is not a police, it has no coercive power. The reason is obvious if you think more than 10 seconds about how to get sovereign governments to cooperate on public health matters.

What would be your ideal organisation? One subservient to the American government? Or do you want it to be a world government above sovereign states? How do you think it would fly?

>>mc32+(OP)
I agree. WHO is no longer a legitimate body reflecting the interests of the United nations. It has been turned into a CCP propaganda tool. There is no point associating with it. Trumps decision in this case was the right one, and the current administration goes against it to the detriment of the non Chinese world.