La Jornada: The WHO in times of Ebola

Between May 18 and 23, the 79th World Health Assembly was held in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a difficult meeting for several reasons, but innovative. Two epidemics were already present: Ebola and hantavirus. And President Trump had insisted on withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). The main topics to be discussed at the meeting were then a new International Health Regulations (IHR), a new financing scheme and the preparation of collaboration in the face of epidemiological emergencies.

The presence of the Ebola bundibugyo virus, with very high mortality and contagion, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, confirms that covid was not an exception, but that the world will have to prepare to cope with new pandemics. The problem is not only having paper plans, but also having a project that can start quickly. For this it is necessary to have the new RSI.

The lesson that the covid pandemic left us is that several of the initial promises were never realized. As a result, large populations did not have access to the necessary medical treatment or vaccines. A harmful politicization of the issue prevailed, opening up the need for a WHO Pandemic Agreement, particularly the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing Annex (PABS) negotiations. As well as efforts to strengthen the global health architecture, sustainable financing of the WHO and global health cooperation, as well as strengthening emergency preparedness and response.

For years, the WHO has had financial problems, because voluntary contributions have been linked to specific projects, whose content and orientation have been decided by the donors. It is the reason why, for example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is playing a leading role in the WHO. It must be the nations that finance, so that research topics and member projects have an important impact for all member nations, which are almost all of the United Nations Organization.

Adding to this difficulty was the departure of the United States, which did not like the WHO’s observations on the handling of covid. Hours after returning to the White House, in January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering the withdrawal of the United States from the organization. According to Washington, this departure would be effective from January 22. However, according to statements by the director general of the WHO, “the US withdrawal is subject to two conditions: notification – which must be made one year in advance, a condition that was effectively met – and payment of arrears,” recalled the director general of the WHO during a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. The United States still owes $260 million in contributions for 2024 and 2025, according to organization figures. He certainly has not paid anything in 2026.

In this context, it is worth highlighting the shared responsibility between nations and compliance with international obligations embodied in the IHR. It is significant that the new rules of behavior, which include access to vaccine manufacturing elements and vaccines, were not yet agreed upon at the end of the Assembly, presumably due to resistance from the pharmaceutical industry and powerful research groups in private universities.