Illinois joins World Health Organization after Trump withdraws U.S.
The state of Illinois is joining the World Health Organization and Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network independently after President Trump fully withdrew the United States from the organization in January.
Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. would be leaving WH on the first day of his second term in 2024. The withdrawal was completed a year later.
Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker announced the state was joining both WHO and GOARN directly, allowing the state to continue to receive global alert, and access expert public health networks and international response resources.
"By withdrawing from the World Health Organization, Donald Trump has undermined science and weakened our nation's ability to detect and respond to global health threats. I refuse to sit idly by and let that happen," Pritzker said in a news release announcing the partnership. "By joining the World Health Organization's coordinated network, GOARN, we are ensuring that our public health leaders – and the public – have the information, expertise, and partnerships they need to protect the people of our state."
The president's decision to leave WHO has been broadly criticized. Trump administration officials acknowledge that they haven't finished working out some issues, such as lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of a new pandemic.
The withdrawal will hurt the global response to new outbreaks and will hobble the ability of U.S. scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and medicines against new threats, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University.
"In my opinion, it's the most ruinous presidential decision in my lifetime," he said.
Pritzker said as a direct member of both organizations, Illinois will maintain their direct access to early-warning alerts and outbreak intelligence, opportunities for technological collaboration, surge support during major public health events and coordination between state-level public health system sand global response teams.
