White House Suggests WHO Reform Effort ‘May Fall Short’

The national-security-strategy document released last week by the White House made headlines for focusing on meeting threats posed by China, Russia, and climate change — with the latter described as an “existential challenge.” In one less-noticed part of the strategy, the administration suggested that important parts of its push to reform the World Health Organization are likely to fail.

The strategy states that while the administration hopes the reform of certain institutions is possible, it could “fall short.” Interestingly, the White House declined to name the WHO specifically, shielding it from criticism of its fealty to Beijing at the outset of the Covid pandemic.

In a section of the document on pandemics and “transnational” challenges, the strategy states that the U.S. must work with all countries on global public health, “including those with whom we disagree, because pandemics know no borders.” “We also acknowledge that some of our international institutions have fallen short in the past and need to be reformed,” the document continued, seeming to make a veiled reference to the WHO.

“While we believe that many of these reforms can be agreed upon and implemented over the lifetime of this administration,” it went on to say, “We also recognize that ultimately some may fall short because other countries do not share our belief in greater transparency and sharing critical data with the international community.” This seems to be a reference to China’s refusal to share critical health data with the WHO and other actors.

One of President Biden’s first moves upon taking office was to reverse America’s withdrawal from the global health body, an order that came on his first day in office. In 2020, President Trump had set in motion Washington’s departure from the organization — citing “the malfeasance of the Chinese government” — which officials blamed for acceding to Chinese demands to hide information about Covid during the early days of the pandemic. The Chinese authorities cracked down on doctors’ efforts to get the word out about the exact nature of the illness and reportedly provided the WHO with incomplete data.

In early 2020, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the Chinese response to Covid “very impressive, and beyond words.”

When the Biden administration brought the U.S. back into the WHO and resumed paying its assessed contributions, top officials pledged that Washington would secure meaningful reforms of the organization. While Tedros had received criticism of his stewardship of the organization throughout the crisis, the administration viewed him as a partner. During a call on January 21, 2021, between Vice President Kamala Harris and Tedros, Harris said that the U.S. would “work as a constructive partner to strengthen and reform the WHO.

Since then, officials have alluded to reforming the organization. In a summary of a meeting between Blinken and Tedros in July of last year, it was stated that they “discussed opportunities for collaboration to continue reforming and strengthening the WHO.” During that meeting, Blinken expressed U.S. support for WHO efforts to investigate the origins of Covid.

While U.S. officials are in talks with the WHO to overhaul global health tools for pandemic response, it’s not clear the extent to which these efforts substantially address China’s grip on the organization. Taiwan is excluded from all WHO functions, and while Blinken has expressed strong support for the country’s inclusion, Beijing has blocked it. Taiwanese officials say that the WHO’s refusal to consider information about Covid which it submitted in December of 2019 cost millions of lives.

Meanwhile, Tedros has returned to the good graces of key players in Washington — on both sides of the aisle.

The administration supported Tedros’s bid for another term, officially endorsing him in February, and Senator Lindsey Graham — who supported the Trump-era push to cut off funding to the WHO in April of 2020 — saying that, “We cannot afford China apologists running the WHO,” was pictured with Tedros at an April meeting in Washington.

Washington has patched things up with the Tedros-led WHO, and that support comes with no criteria for meaningful reform.