Former World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Saturday said America’s exit from WHO would not be good for anyone including that country and its contribution to global health surveillance depends on the GDP of the respective countries.
Hoping that the US, which has so much technical and scientific expertise, will reconsider its decision, he said that if it pulls out, the North American nation will also be unable to access WHO data to be part of the solution .
“The richer the country, the more you pay because you have to pay as a percentage of your GDP. The current system is very fair. You can’t expect a small country in Central Africa like Congo to He will pay the same amount as the United States.” State,” Swaminathan told PTI Video on the sidelines of the Hyderabad Literature Festival here.
She was responding to US President Donald Trump’s comment that his country with a population of 325 million pays US$500 million to WHO compared to China, which has 1.4 billion people and pays US$39 million. Are.
Trump recently signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the US from the WHO, marking the second time in less than five years that the US has taken the step to withdraw from the world body.
He said that in future, all countries including America need to work together for health security and to protect people from epidemics.
“Even if the United States is not part of WHO, it would be really difficult to get access to the data to be part of the solution to know what’s happening in other parts of the world,” Swaminathan said. “
“I think it’s really not good for anybody that such an important, such a big country is taking a back seat.” Saying that health is interconnected and all health risks are global, he said a virus originating in one part of the world today can spread across the world within 30 hours.
“So unless we have global cooperation and global policies and rules and understanding between countries, it will be impossible to deal with global health threats,” Swaminathan said.
He said WHO is a place and forum where 193 countries come together and discuss issues, debate and reach consensus before making rules such as international health regulations and pandemic treaties.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
