Bloomberg Law: U.S. Role at Risk in Next Flu Vaccine With WHO Withdrawal
“The CDC could lose the ability to select next year’s flu vaccine if the Trump administration follows through with terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization. ‘The selection of the influenza vaccine every year is a very detailed process by which stakeholders sit around the table and look at data from around the world. If the U.S. isn’t at that table, Americans lose out and are less safe,’ said Charles Holmes, co-director of the Georgetown University Center for Innovation in Global Health, said Friday during a media briefing by the Infectious Diseases Society of America…” (Baumann, 6/12).

Globe and Mail: Margaret Chan reshaped the WHO and brought it closer to China
“…In late 2006, [Margaret Chan] won a resounding victory after a leadership campaign heavily backed by China, which included [then Chinese President Hu Jintao] writing a personal letter of recommendation. Dr. Chan went on to lead the WHO for a decade, a time in which she reshaped the organization and nurtured its relationship with China, a connection that has come under intense scrutiny in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Loudest among the critics has been U.S. President Donald Trump, who pulled funding from the organization and accused it of bending to Chinese dictates to ‘mislead the world’ about the threat of the virus. The WHO has shown ‘an alarming lack of independence,’ Mr. Trump has said. Dr. Chan is no longer at the WHO, and her defenders and former colleagues call her a woman of integrity who showed no bias toward China…” (Vanderklippe, 6/12).

Newsweek: Alex Azar Says China ‘Concealed’ Coronavirus, WHO ‘Failed’ to ‘Demand Accountability’
“Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), pinned blame for the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese government and the World Health Organization (WHO) while speaking to reporters on Friday. Azar made the remarks during a visit to Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he spoke about efforts to combat the coronavirus while accompanied by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. ‘A novel coronavirus like this, a highly transmissible but very severe disorder that spreads, now we know, no thanks to the Chinese for concealing it, asymptomatic transmission makes this a particularly perplexing and dangerous virus to be dealing with,’ Azar said during a news conference…” (Slisco, 6/13).