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U.S. Formally Withdraws from World Health Organization
- apexalpha 9mo agoThis is one way to improve the average health of the WHO countries.
- nephihaha 9mo ago[flagged]
- airstrike 9mo agoThe WHO has no power to "override" "our supposedly democratic institutions"
- nephihaha 9mo agoIt already did a few years ago and issued contradictory advice based on its Event 201 tabletop exercise in October 2019, which was implemented six months later. (Such as suggesting international commercial flights continue during a pandemic, while saying time outdoors should be limited.) It has spent the entire 2020s trying to push through a global treaty allowing them to declare situations independently of national governments. The backlash has been huge, especially since this can have consequences going beyond healthcare.
- aprilthird2021 9mo ago> The problem with a lot of these UN bodies such as the WHO, UNESCO etc is that they do not have proper external scrutiny, and instead have become overarching institutions which pass down diktats from on high. Any example of a diktat from on high which you think was highly negative? Afaik, these bodies typically just promote whatever is scientifically / economically / etc. the prevailing worldview
- overtone1000 9mo agoDo you have any examples of how WHO has overridden the power of a supposedly democratic institution in mind, or are you just making a generically anti-establishment argument? WHO is, like every scientific or humanitarian endeavor, imperfect. But the list of goods they've done in the world dwarves the list of failures.
- throwworhtthrow 9mo agoCan you talk a bit more about situations where WHO or UNESCO have overridden a country's health system? As a US citizen I see WHO as 1) offering guidance and 2) funding programs in poorer countries' health systems. UNESCO, well, I'm looking at its website and Wikipedia article now, and I don't understand what it does. (Or maybe it would be easier to list what it doesn't do, since even its list of sponsored institutions is mind-numbingly long.)
- nephihaha 9mo agoUNESCO claims to protect things of historical and cultural importance. Like good health, this sounds a noble goal in itself. In practice it is often more of a junket/gravy train, as are most of these NGOs. The WHO has been trying to push through an international treaty since 2020 which would allow them to override national governments on health matters.
- cosmicgadget 9mo agoWhich countries give up their sovereignty when they sign treaties?
- tehjoker 9mo agoAll bad news man. They are shredding international institutions that might criticize our elites when they do whatever they want, consequences be damned. It's probably true the Democrats wouldn't have done exactly this move, but they aren't going to roll it back either.
- dralley 9mo agoThis has literally already happened under the first Trump term, and was rolled back under Biden, by Democrats. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/world/biden-restores-who-ties.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/world/biden-restores-who-... So, like, what exactly is the point of making up reasons to hate Democrats. Obviously it's all the rage on the left (as on the right) to do so, but fabrications from the left are no better than fabrications from the right.
- Insanity 9mo agoNo need to be so aggressive about it lol, can just correct the parent poster. Personally I didn't know Biden rolled it back, and I just assumed it would only now take effect after having been 'in limbo'. :)
- Cipater 9mo agoMaybe people need to have facts told to them aggressively to get them in the habit of not assuming things.
- tehjoker 9mo agoThat's true, I remembered that after I posted, but at the same time, I suspect that a lot of this round will be more permanent. At least in the former case, the US did not exit the institution (1 year notice required). In this case, there will be more than 1 year between presidential administrations. If Trump doesn't pay up our outstanding fees, it is possible a Democratic administration will use that to say we never really exited, but if it is formally done, I feel rather skeptical they will rejoin. There is strong continuity on foreign policy between administrations. You have to put this in context that Trump is also creating what appears to be an alternative venue to the UN with the "Board of Peace" which was originally a colonial authority to impose our will on Gaza, but its charter doesn't mention Gaza at all and talks about international conflict in general.
- lateforwork 9mo agoChina will fill this gap as well: https://www.hematologyadvisor.com/news/china-donates-500m-to-who-as-u-s-pulls-back-support/ https://www.hematologyadvisor.com/news/china-donates-500m-to...
- Nursie 9mo agoChina is likely to use its influence to push "TCM" further into the narrative. Not that the US national health agenda is exemplary in its use of evidence and scientific knowledge at the moment either. Sad all round. (Edit - downvoters, do you not agree that this is likely, or do you think that it's OK? If the former, it's been done before so it seems very likely to me. If the latter then I have to say I agree with this take in scientific american - "To include TCM in the ICD is an egregious lapse in evidence-based thinking and practice." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-world-health-organization-gives-the-nod-to-traditional-chinese-medicine-bad-idea/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-world-health-...)
- aprilthird2021 9mo agoWhy would they do that? Genuinely makes 0 sense to me. Even India with its nationalist authoritarian govt doesn't push Ayurveda on the global stage (for domestic customers though it's obv a big business whose magnates have close ties w the govt)
- Nursie 9mo agoBecause they've done it before? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-world-health-organization-gives-the-nod-to-traditional-chinese-medicine-bad-idea/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-world-health-... https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240042322 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240042322
- aprilthird2021 9mo agoWow, that is crazy. TIL It just seems like such an undermining move to prop up an industry that anyways relies on distrust of established scientific and medical systems
- Carrok 9mo agoLong, exasperated, existential sigh
- leetrout 9mo agoI don't comment very often on political posts and this is borderline off topic but if Trump had handled the pandemic by following the science we were putting to work and championed doing the best we could for saving lives he would have won his second term. Instead we have been sold to someone(s) that only want to see us divided internally and externally expanding our isolationist stances. It just feels like everything is taking polarization to the extreme. I feel really terrible imagining what my daughter will inherit from all of this.
- aprilthird2021 9mo agoAm I wrong or Trump was the one who initiated the first shutdowns. Trump was the one who said we'll have a vaccine quickly, etc. What should he have done that he didn't do, in your opinion? Fwiw, it was the economic shock from COVID that caused this situation where he's come back to ruin our lives again. Any further disruption to the economy during COVID would have exacerbated that
- LargeWu 9mo agoIt's less what should he have done, than what shouldn't he have done. Specifically, he pushed conspiracy theories, demonized his health experts, and touted ineffective cures, and ultimately cast doubt on the safety of the vaccines. All to pander to his base. He had a remarkable chance to build trust in government via a truly extraordinary vaccine rollout, to a crowd which is historically distrustful. Instead he squandered that goodwill on petty fights and self aggrandizement.
- TimorousBestie 9mo ago> What should he have done that he didn't do, in your opinion? I’ll just run down the record and stop at the first obvious error. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._federal_government_respon... > One month after [March 16, 2020, when the administration first recommended social distancing], epidemiologists Britta Jewell and Nicholas Jewell estimated that, had social distancing policies been implemented just two weeks earlier, U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 might have been reduced by 90%. So there’s a concrete thing he could have done differently. > Any further disruption to the economy during COVID would have exacerbated that More stringent restrictions done earlier may have shortened the duration of the economic impact, who knows, we can’t exactly observe those alternate timelines directly. The administration had zero discipline on messaging and so nothing was done with any consistency. As you say, he was initially positive that a vaccine would arrive quickly; when it was available, he flipped and endorsed alternative treatments of all kinds, many of them harmful. Formerly a champion of Dr. Fauci, then later his worst detractor and chief prosecutor in the court of public opinion.
- spicyusername 9mo agoOne of the worst parts of the Trump presidencies has been the absolute non-stop onslaught of bad news. Every single day. Day after day. Absolute terrible news. The bar is so low, but god I cannot wait until we have another president that I don't think about more than a few times a year. If we just didn't have a president at all for a term it would be an improvement.
- estearum 9mo agoI once had someone argue that a point against Biden was that he wasn't omnipresent in daily life. It wasn't the 24/7 Joe Biden show. They somehow thought that the correct form of American politics is just truly nonstop antics from the White House. It's like these people think they're watching WWE.
- alexilliamson 9mo agoThe current guy is nothing if not a documented professional wrestling fan
- Nursie 9mo agoAs someone not in the US, but who listens to a lot of UK and Australian news here in Australia, it is noticeable how often the words "Donald Trump" are the first things spoken in any given bulletin. Can't imagine what it must be like on the inside, I am looking forward to that no longer being the case, one day.
- SanjayMehta 9mo ago[flagged]
- cosmicgadget 9mo ago208 weeks of that? Really? And that's on par with this insanity?
- SanjayMehta 9mo ago
- FridayoLeary 9mo agoI think the WHO have a lot to answer for over the Covid debacle, international health cooperation is important but i don't care if WHO dies so another body can be built on it's ashes.
- ks2048 9mo agoMore evidence that Carney’s speech marks the end of American global “leadership”
- jacquesm 9mo agoI didn't need Carney's speech to mark that, Jan 6 2025 was the date.
- pstuart 9mo agoI'd posit that Jan 20 2017 marked the beginning of the end. It's a daily challenge to keep track and not spiral into despair. It's not just that one man, it's that so many citizens love him. It truly boggles the mind.
- perfmode 9mo agoAnything to keep the news cycles engaged in busywork.
- ggm 9mo agoThis has been a long time in concept. Republican opposition to contraception, women's reproductive health issues, AIDS and like were Reagan era concerns and this coincided with uncovering decades long systematic waste and corrupt behaviour across UN agencies. I do not like this outcome but surely nobody is surprised? The specific act took a year to enact. They had to announce the intent to withdraw back in 24/25. This is politics. The impact on worldwide health will take a while to emerge but the impact on soft power will be clear if and when other WHO members pick up the slack.
- tv-12921293 9mo agoThe same theater as in his first term. Now we would like to know who Bubba was and why a president can enrich himself by $9.7 billion: https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/trump-family-corruption-tracker https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/trump-family-corruption...
- myth_drannon 9mo agoWHO like many other ngos is politicized and subverted by rogue states. It's about time to reject it. There is no alternative for now but keeping with current status quo is counter productive.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- sizzleflip5000 9mo ago[flagged]
- throwerxyz 9mo agoTech is basically just a big political echochamber for the last decade. The camps have been built at the oasis for both sides. Sad.
- sillyfluke 9mo agoHN Guidelines allow for poltical posts if they're evidence of new interesting phenomenon. Complaining about a post just because it is about a political topic just pollutes the forum.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- sizzleflip5000 9mo agoJust trying to help discourage irrelevant stories in one of the last remaining good tech forums on the net. Sorry if you disagree.
- kccoder 9mo agoThe voluntary rapid disassembly of the world’s largest superpower, which is home to most large tech companies, seems very relevant, even without the tech component. I mean how often do you get to witness something like this?
- apexalpha 9mo agoThe administration is supported and buoyed by many companies and rich people in SV. Besides that the general decline of the American Empire seems relevant enough for today's world.
- sizzleflip5000 9mo agoCanadian. Go figure.
- kegsy 9mo agoSome questions: - why did the Trump administration decide to leave the WHO? - what impact will this have? - is this at all beneficial to other countries that aren't the US?
- throwerxyz 9mo agoAnother question. Why did Covid cause every government to become authoritarian on the directions of the WHO which couldn't even, itself, verify what stance to hold authority on.
- sillyfluke 9mo agoSimple. They didn't know how bad the virus could or could not get ahead of time before it went through several iterations of mutations and wide spread infections. It's the same reflex for boarding up the house, huddling up and waiting for the storm to pass. It could be a Category 5, or turn out to be a weaker Category 2, can't guarentee it ahead of time.
- zombot 9mo agoThe inmates taking over the asylum progresses apace.
- tsoukase 9mo agoThe US government has introduced a whole new stance for a developed country: disrupt and poison allied relations, retract from established cooperation and take a hostile position. And all that not because of any MAGA bs but to keep and increase the benefits of his billionaire patrons.