US, Argentina launching new ‘alternative’ to WHO

The top health authorities of the U.S. and Argentina are launching what they call an “alternative international health system” separate from the World Health Organization (WHO).

On the first day of his second term, President Trump signed an executive starting the yearlong process of withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO. In February, Argentinian President Javier Milei followed suit.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Argentine Minister of Health Mario Lugones remarked on the decision to withdraw from the global health authority.

“The WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious structural and operational shortcomings that undermined global trust and highlighted the urgent need for independent, science-based leadership in global health,” their statement read.

“There are well-documented concerns regarding the early management of the pandemic and the risks associated with certain types of research. Rather than ensuring timely transparency, the WHO failed to provide critical access to information, impairing countries’ ability to act swiftly and effectively, with devastating global consequences.”

Trump had started the process of withdrawing from the global health body during his first term, but former President Biden reversed the move before it took effect.

On a post on the social platform X, Kennedy said he met with Milei to discuss the creation of an “alternative international health system based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control.”

The WHO was responsible for collecting and disseminating data about the spread of the coronavirus during the pandemic, but retrospective observations have identified areas where the international group fell short.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, established by the WHO to derive lessons from past epidemics for the future, in a 2021 report identified missed steps to mitigate or potentially prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their report noted that despite consistent messaging and reporting on global preparedness before COVID-19, the majority or prior recommendations agreed upon by the WHO were never implemented.

“Although public health officials, infectious disease experts, and previous international commissions and reviews had warned of potential pandemics and urged robust preparations since the first outbreak of SARS, COVID-19 still took large parts of the world by surprise. It should not have done,” the independent panel found.

“The number of infectious disease outbreaks has been accelerating, many of which have pandemic potential. It is clear to the Panel that the world was not prepared and had ignored warnings which resulted in a massive failure: an outbreak of SARS-COV-2 became a devastating pandemic.”