The US shows up (via video) after Biden reverses Trump’s decision.
President Joe Biden recommitted the US to the World Health Organization within his first hours in office. On Thursday, the new administration tasked its top infectious disease expert with representing the United States at the WHO. That person, of course, is Dr. Anthony Fauci, who became something of a celebrity during the Trump administration for his fact-based communication to the public about the Covid-19 pandemic in an administration that was anything but. Now a leading member of Biden’s Covid-19 response team, Fauci appeared via video at the WHO’s executive meeting. Fauci reiterated that the US would remain a member of the global health agency, reversing former President Donald Trump’s attempt to withdraw from the body. “As a WHO member state, the United States will work constructively with partners to strengthen and, importantly, reform the WHO, to help lead the collective effort to strengthen the international COVID-19 response and address its secondary impacts on people, communities, and health systems around the world,” Fauci said Thursday. Fauci’s appearance before the WHO comes on the anniversary of the first coronavirus case detected in the United States. A full year later, more than 400,000 Americans have died from the virus, and 2 million people have succumbed worldwide. Fauci said on Thursday that the Biden administration would cooperate with the World Health Organization, and the rest of the world, to respond to and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. To that end, Fauci said the Biden administration would issue a directive later Thursday that would bring the United States into Covax, the global initiative to develop and equitably distribute vaccine doses worldwide. More than 170 countries are members of the initiative, though the Trump administration had declined to join — an outlier, along with Russia. The US Congress set aside about $4 billion for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organization that focuses on immunization campaigns worldwide. Gavi is one of the main partners in Covax (along with the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) in the Covid-19 relief package passed late last year, to help in global Covid-19 vaccine distribution.
