As a person who has spent much of my professional life in the field of international humanitarian and development work linked with the United Nations, I want to call out the Trump administration’s contradictory stance in pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. The head of the American Medical Association stated this action will have “significant harm and repercussions” both for citizens of the US and for the international community. Viruses are not bound by national borders; the WHO is the existing global body with the reach and authority to track and monitor the health of people all over the world. Their scientists are working on a vaccine to keep us free of COVID-19.

The administration has decided to end our relationship with the WHO during this pandemic, with the US death toll now over 100,000. Limiting our pool of possibilities for finding a vaccine that benefits both the US and the international community is incredibly short-sighted and, for many, will be a path to sickness and death.