WHO’s enemies on Capitol Hill

The people and politics driving global health.

May 26, 2022 View in browser   By Daniel Payne and Carmen Paun THE BIG IDEA Sen. Marco Rubio has been one of the Republicans in Congress recently criticizing the U.S.' role in the WHO. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images REPUBLICANS THROW SHADE AT WHO — As top world health leaders gather for a major meeting in Geneva this week, Republicans in Congress are renewing their skepticism of the World Health Organization. Several Republicans seized on a handful of Biden administration proposals to amend the international rules governing disease outbreaks and efforts on a larger pandemic treaty. They paint the U.S. as being overtaken by a mighty, China-controlled WHO — but provide little evidence for those claims. Administration and WHO officials have explained that countries remain sovereign over their health policies as they have in multilateral agreements, but some Republicans and influential pundits' insistence otherwise could make it harder for U.S. officials to get public support for changes to international health rules or for a potential treaty. "President Trump was right to withdraw our membership from this corrupt globalist organization, and my constituents are horrified that the Biden Administration is empowering the Chinese Communist Party to govern our response to a pandemic caused by China," Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) said in a statement just before the World Health Assembly in Geneva. That echoes a conspiracy theory claiming that a U.S.-proposed change — which would not require a country with an outbreak to agree that it poses international concern — would mean the WHO can dictate government responses to a health emergency. "Any plan by the Biden administration to defer control over our national pandemic response to an international organization in the name of 'pandemic prevention' is an alarming dereliction of duty and against the interest of our country." Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said in a statement. Administration officials argue the opposite, pointing out that the changes would make more information available than at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and be distributed at a faster pace. "So these tweaks or changes say things like, 'Hey, if you see something happening in your country where people are suddenly starting to die, maybe you want to let people know. And ideally, you let WHO know.'" That's how Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, described the proposed changes Wednesday, speaking ata Devex event in Geneva. So far, her delegation is struggling to get support for speeding up the creation and enforcement of agreements. Pace said she's "seen and received" many messages about the conspiracy. "I think there's legitimate confusion, and I also think that there's deliberate misinformation," she said about the campaign against the proposed changes. Other conservative messaging powerhouses have amplified the campaign. Two prominent Fox News shows devoted significant air time to denouncing the proposed amendments, policies aimed at pandemic preparedness and the WHO as an institution. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) joined one segment and suggested the head of the WHO was installed by the Chinese government — a sentiment shared by some of his colleagues. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) piled on. "The WHO is a corrupt, radical institution that was powerless to stop COVID-19 spreading beyond China and has failed to conduct a serious investigation into the origins of the virus," he said in a statement to Global Pulse. "It was a mistake to rejoin the WHO without demanding urgently needed reforms and the administration's current approach will do nothing to rectify the WHO's many issues." Miller, Donalds and Smith did not respond to requests for comment. WELCOME TO GLOBAL PULSE WELCOME BACK TO GLOBAL PULSE, where your hosts are relieved that there's a long weekend coming. Global Pulse is a team effort. Thanks to editors Eli Reyes and Barbara Van Tine. Follow us on Twitter: @_daniel_payne and @carmenpaun. IN THE SPOTLIGHT Monkeypox has spread across several continents, even in places where transmission is unusual. | Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP THE MONKEYPOX OUTBREAK YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT — Four countries in Africa have reported more than 1,300 cases of monkeypox and about 60 deaths over the last six months. Most of the cases and deaths were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But that's not the outbreak you've heard about. This month, more than a dozen countries in Europe and North America reported a few hundred cases of monkeypox. The difference between the two regions is that the virus is endemic in the first, while its spread is unusual in the second. While the U.S. and European governments are ordering monkeypox vaccines and antivirals, health experts in Africa hope the attention to the virus will help contain those outbreaks at the source in the future. "That kind of attention to neglected tropical diseases and also to emerging virus diseases can have a positive impact if it then galvanizes the global community to respond with investing more in research, investing more in surveillance, because … we've known that monkeypox can infect humans for at least 50 years," Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, a Cameroonian doctor based at Emory University in Atlanta, told Global Pulse. If the global interest in the virus had arrived sooner, maybe it could have been eradicated by now, Christian Happi, Nigeria's top genomics expert, told The Washington Post. GLOBAL PULSE NUMBER 230 MILLION The number of Covid-19 vaccines the Serum Institute of India and Moderna might have to destroy because of lack of demand, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos. THE STATE OF THE PANDEMIC PFIZER'S ACCORD FOR ACCESS — A new agreement among Pfizer and low- and lower-middle-income countries would make all the company's patented medicines and vaccines available at not-for-profit pricing. The company's "An Accord for a Healthier World" has already been joined by Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda, Pfizer said in its Wednesday announcement of the initiative. As part of the accord, Pfizer will provide 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, certain cancers and rare and inflammatory diseases. Pfizer will help improve health systems in the countries to deliver its medicines and vaccines, the company announced. The decision by the company — which has identified another 40 countries eligible for agreements — comes as it reports record profits from its Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutic and amid criticism that it's using the public health emergency to grow margins. "We shouldn't hail pandemic profiteers as heroes, even when they make qualified gestures like this," said Julia Kosgei, policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance, which noted the move was too little, too late. TWEET OF THE WEEK A tweet from a U.K. doctor after a report published Wednesday laid out lurid details of raucous nights of booze and boogying in the U.K. Prime Minister's office during the country's lockdown. | Twitter THE INSIDERS Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been reelected as director-general of the WHO. | Kiran Ridley/Getty Images TEDROS REELECTED — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was reappointed at the World Health Alliance to lead the WHO as director-general. Tedros, who ran unopposed, now faces considerable challenges heading into the next five years. Here's what to watch for as he starts his second term: His strategy to get out of the pandemic. With many wealthier nations ready to move on from Covid and most poorer nations still largely unvaccinated, the WHO will have to help determine how and when to define the end of the pandemic. His role in new pandemic preparedness efforts. With much of the global health world looking ahead to preventing and preparing for the next pandemic, the WHO will look to navigate the policies and funding that could define global health in the shadow of Covid-19. His plans to make up ground in fighting other diseases. Other serious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV and malaria are serious threats for much of the world — and progress in fighting them weakened during the pandemic. The WHO will continue to face not only Covid-19 but also deficits in treating and preventing other deadly diseases. His reform of the WHO: When the former Ethiopian health and foreign minister was first elected in 2017, he pledged to reform the global health body after its failed response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak a few years before. He's worked to respond more quickly to similar outbreaks in Africa but now faces another daunting challenge: ensuring that people working for the WHO in crises don't sexually exploit locals, as happened during the response to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2018 and 2020. MORE MONEY FOR WHO — It won't happen until 2030, but WHO member countries have committed to increase contributions to cover 50 percent of the organization's core budget, from 22 percent. The WHO's underfunding has come up repeatedly and was laid bare during the pandemic. "This … is about making sure that WHO is adequately equipped in order to do its job in the future, being truly enabled to be the leading and coordinating authority of global health," said Germany's Björn Kümmel, who headed the process that led to the agreement. The decision also places increased pressure on the WHO to strengthen accountability, transparency and efficiency around its funding, POLITICO's Ashleigh Furlong reports. WHAT WE'RE CLICKING The Guardian: "I saw an oncologist cry": People with cancer in Tigray sent home to die for lack of drugs. The Wall Street Journal: China's top two leaders diverge in messaging on Covid impact. The Economist: A world grain shortage puts tens of millions of people at risk.   Follow us

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