The victory of Trump and the Republican Senate spells ruin for the WHO pandemic agreement

The pandemic agreementwhich aims to coordinate international cooperation during a disease outbreak to prevent the next pandemic, received significant support from the President Joe Biden and the Democrats, despite a difficult path to gaining support from other WHO member states.

But a new Trump administration, along with Republicans in Congress, is likely to take a more critical approach to international public health in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the WHO’s failure to inform the world about the severity of the disease outbreak China in January and February 2020.

“I would expect that there would be no way the pandemic accords would cross the finish line, be ratified or approved by the United States, which would, frankly, really kneecap it,” said Jennifer Kates, a specialist on global health policy in healthcare. think tank KFF, told reporters Friday.

The goal of the pandemic agreement (officially known as the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response Accord) is intended to address the shortcomings in global communications, surveillance, and supply chains that have been exposed by the way the international community dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most controversial aspects of the agreement included the allocation of financial responsibility for pandemic preparedness, including more open access to research on pathogens and vaccines and antiviral treatments, which has raised intellectual property concerns among more economically developed countries.

The US has been deeply involved in the negotiations on the pandemic deal since its inception in 2021, with Kates describing the Biden administration as “very supportive” and “very committed” to the negotiation process.

“Republicans in Congress, not so much,” Kates said.

In September one account which would require Senate ratification of “any convention or agreement on pandemic-related matters” passed the House by a vote of 219 to 199. The legislation was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before the 2024 elections.

Kates says Republicans generally have a history of being skeptical of international agreements, especially those that could infringe on state sovereignty.

Other WHO member states had similar concerns about the limitations on national sovereignty in the original text of the agreement.

Although the WHO characterized concerns over sovereignty as a result of “the deluge of fake news, and misinformation and disinformation, targeting the negotiations on a pandemic agreement,” the draft text of the agreement was updated in December 2023 to emphasize that States Parties under the international would be protected “to make laws and to implement legislation to implement their health policies.”

Even with these changes, disagreements among member states during what should have been the final vote in May over the language and legal weight of the agreement led to the decision to postpone the final vote until May 2025.

Kates predicted that even if a new version of the pandemic agreement were to be adopted at next year’s international voting session, it would likely not have much success if the US does not join in, similar to the failure of the League of Nationsan international peacekeeping body founded in the 1920s to prevent World War II.

The Senate is the only US congressional body that ratifies treaties, making Republican control of the body a major hurdle for supporters of the deal.

WHO relationship in general

Although Trump said during the campaign that he had “concepts of a plan” for reforming Obamacare, he and his team offered few other substantive policy proposals to indicate what we could expect from health policy in his next administration, let alone what to expect from health policy in his next administration. ​on international public health issues. .

In May 2020, Trump threatened to revoke US membership of the WHO along with its $400 million in funding, about 15% of the organization’s operating budget. By that June, Trump cancelled $62 million in funding for the WHO and set the US withdrawal date for July 2021. Both decisions were quickly reversed by Biden.

Kates said she would “fully expect the Trump administration to try that again,” which would be even more likely with a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress.

Proposing broader reforms to the WHO and America’s relationship with the international organization has also been a focus of Republicans in Congress during the Biden years.

Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, led the charge on the House side of Representatives to reevaluate the US-WHO relationship in light of the organization’s role in covering up China’s COVID-19 policies during the early stages of the pandemic.

Wenstrup, who did not run for re-election in 2024, emphasized the need for the WHO to achieve greater independence from the Chinese Communist Party, which will likely remain a goal for the next Trump administration.

Although the subcommittee, as part of the House Oversight Committee, does not have the jurisdiction to introduce legislation, America’s relationship with the WHO will likely be part of the subcommittee’s final report on its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and its pandemic-era policies. . The report will probably be a springboard for the next parliamentary term.

Larry Levitt, KFF’s vice president for health policy, told reporters Friday that very little is known about what Trump will choose on most health policy issues in his next administration, as he and his team were vague about it during the campaign the subject.

“A big part of what we have to base on is Trump’s record from his previous term as president, as well as proposals from Republicans in Congress and conservative groups,” Levitt said. “There’s a lot of tea leaf reading involved in anticipating what might happen.”