HIVMA Chair Responds to U.S. WHO Withdrawal

"The administration’s decision to withdraw from the WHO will not only leave the United States more vulnerable to COVID-19 and future pandemics, but it will be a major setback to our efforts to control the HIV pandemic here at home and abroad. Withdrawal will undo decades’ worth of collaborative progress and will endanger the important investments we have made in fighting the HIV pandemic. Our country’s long-standing collaboration with the WHO has been critical to our role as a global leader in fighting HIV, saving 17 million lives thus far, and preventing millions of new HIV infections. As is abundantly clear from recent pandemics—AIDS, SARS, MERS, H1N1, influenza—germs get on planes and travel to new locations with impunity. If we can’t work closely with the WHO, the administration’s noble goal of Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States by 2030 will be at risk.”

Judith Feinberg, M.D., FIDSA — Chair, HIV Medicine Association