Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration recently directed scientists and researchers to cut ties with the World Health Organization, a move that could have damning effects on how the US reacts to disease threats.
According to CNN, the Trump administration recently ordered members of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases to cease communication with the WHO.
A May 18 email from a senior NIAID official to staff revealed that some officials can attend virtual WHO meetings, but only in a small group and in "listening capacity."
"We'll be operating in the same manner for Ebola as we have been doing for Hantavirus, assembling a small groups of experts – no more than three – to participate," the email said.
"Should we have legitimate research questions or countermeasure testing ideas, we can bring those up through the proper chain of command."
The move comes as countries across the world have been coming together to battle recent Ebola and Hantavirus outbreaks, but Trump's new policy could shut out many key researchers from global discussions on virus outbreaks.
Donald Trump's longstanding feud with the WHO
Since returning to office for his second term, Trump and his administration have made sweeping efforts to distance the US from participating in global health forums. One of his first executive orders upon taking office was to remove the US from the WHO.
The president has long criticized the organization – and its former head Dr. Anthony Fauci – for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On May 11, Trump told reporters that the WHO makes "wrong diagnoses," and claimed that while he always insisted Covid came from a lab in Wuhan, the WHO refused to do so because they were "owned by China."