Van Hollen, Colleagues Urge Trump Administration against Upending U.S. Relationship with WHO Amid Global Fight Against COVID-19

Statement

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and a group of Democratic senators in urging the Trump Administration to reconsider its treatment of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the senators raised concerns about the consequences of further withdrawing the United States from multilateral cooperation to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter follows President Trump's announcement last week that he would freeze all funding for the WHO for its handling of the outbreak.

"Just as there was confusion and shortcomings domestically in response to the outbreak, there may be lessons to be learned from the WHO's response to COVID-19," wrote the Senators. "However, the fact remains that the WHO is the primary institution with the capacity to respond that countries across the world rely on when confronted with pandemics and other health challenges. The middle of a global pandemic is not the time to upend our relationship with this institution."

On January 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the virus' human-to-human transmission, its four percent death rate, and that the virus had the potential to reach any country, a warning that proved prudent given that the U.S. had announced its first confirmed case two days prior, on January 21. U.S. diplomats were returning from Wuhan around the same time and the State Department's epidemiologist warned that the virus could develop into a pandemic. On January 30, one day after President Trump announced the formation of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

As Americans and people all over the world continue to face an unprecedented threat to international health, stability, and security, the Senators pressed upon the Trump Administration the need to focus on saving lives and flattening the global curve.

"This extraordinary crisis will require us to ask hard questions after we turn the tide against the virus. We must understand what actions China took to conceal information or misrepresent the severity of the crisis from WHO in its early days, and what we can do as a member of WHO to prevent this in the future. We also must learn more about actions the United Nations and WHO took that either helped or hampered our own response. And we must ask hard questions about our own government's response," added the Senators. "Right now, however, the United States should and must work alongside our partners in the international community to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic before more lives and livelihoods are lost, both here and abroad."

Joining Van Hollen and Menendez in sending the letter were Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).