Óscar Zurriaga
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Valencia and outgoing president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE).
According to WHO's own information, the US is the main donor in the period 2022-2023. The exit of the US from the WHO will mean losing an amount of 1.284 billion dollars for that biennium and will put the WHO at a significant financial risk, a risk of being able to meet its objectives and going backwards in everything that is already being done. But, apart from that, the most important risk is the loss of influence of the WHO itself, which, at times, is no longer what it should be; and the constant questioning of multilateral issues in the field of health. I think this is very bad news and will affect global health, especially for the countries that are in the worst situation, which will see important programmes cut back. If we add to this the fact that the appointed US Secretary of Health is not in favour of key programmes such as vaccinations, we could have a worsening of global health.