Why U.S. involvement in the World Health Organization is critical now more than ever

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference after a meeting of the Emergency Committee on the coronavirus in Geneva, Switzerland January 30, 2020. Source.

Last month, senior U.S. health official Garrett Grisby claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) was not sharing enough information on an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. The data could be critical in understanding how COVID-19 developed and how to prevent such a pandemic again in the future. Grisby’s accusations come after a year marked by China’s refusal to cooperate with WHO officials and President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold critical funding.

WHO evolved out of various conferences held by Western powers and was spearheaded by U.S. involvement, however China has made efforts in the past two decades to increase its influence in the global health arena. WHO is a U.N. agency with no enforcement powers, which means that it must rely on the cooperation of member states such as China.

In early 2020, WHO publicly lauded China’s containment efforts with COVID-19 and their transparency, despite China not sharing information on the transmission of the virus and other important data. This caused a delay in the global COVID-19 response which impeded vaccine development and cost countless lives. Furthermore, WHO ignored the human rights concerns of China’s COVID-19 lockdown techniques; for example, people who are infected with COVID-19 and don’t comply with quarantine could face lifetime imprisonment or even death.

So why did WHO not condemn China’s actions? Recordings obtained by the Associated Press suggest that it's because WHO—with limited authority and caught between U.S. and Chinese pressures—sought to coax more information from China by cooperating with the notoriously secretive country. It is plausible that WHO officials feared that publicly admonishing China’s actions could cause them to cut ties with the organization, rendering the WHO obstructed from vital epidemiological data.

Even though WHO has made dubious public statements in the past to compel Chinese involvement that does not necessarily mean they are hiding important information about the COVID-19 origin probe. It is likely that China does not want foreign officials having unfettered access to the country where they could witness human rights abuses or stumble upon confidential state information. This explains China’s motivations behind influencing WHO to be more discreet about the investigation, much to the chagrin of American officials and the international community.

Despite the WHO’s shortcomings, it would be a major policy blunder for the United States to limit their involvement in the organization. It has been indispensable during the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering critical information about testing, treatment and vaccine science. Permanently cutting all funding to the WHO as Trump vowed in May and permanently withdrawing from the organization would be ceding influence to China, which would dramatically increase Chinese power on the world stage.

If WHO was spearheaded by China instead of the U.S., we would see policy where health aid is poorly allocated and actions are done in the best interest of Beijing. China would likely bully countries into complying with their will by threatening to deny them WHO resources and funds. That would be consistent with China’s actions during the ongoing pandemic, for example when they forced other nations like Vietnam and Cambodia to keep their borders open to bolster the Chinese economy. Handing over the WHO to China during a global pandemic would give the country unprecedented influence while undercutting U.S. foreign interests. 

The solution is not the United States to dismiss WHO’s value and for the U.S. to turn its back on the global health security arena—instead, we must continue to influence international coalitions into creating fair, sustainable, and logical policy. Global health security impacts every country in our interconnected world, and there is no clearer example of that than the current COVID-19 pandemic.