June 2020

Standing in Solidarity with the World Health Organization

June 3, 2020

Addressed to:

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
World Health Organization Headquarters
Avenue Appia 20
1211, Geneva 27

Cc: WHO Staff Worldwide

Dear Dr. Tedros,

As U.S.-based public health research, academic, and advocacy organizations, representing millions of people across the country, we write to express our solidarity with the World Health Organization (WHO) and your individual staff and teams around the world. We thank you for the WHO’s efforts to rapidly and effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19.

We are deeply disappointed by the U.S. government’s decision to play politics with public health and safety by slandering the WHO’s vital work in combating the global coronavirus pandemic and subsequently terminating U.S. government funding to the organization. We reject our government’s decision to end U.S. contributions to the WHO, because we recognize the harms that doing so will cause to the global community’s ability to both combat the coronavirus pandemic and safeguard global health and public safety in the future.

The WHO’s role as an international convener of researchers, public health practitioners, scientists, and governments is more critical now than ever. We are grateful to the WHO and its leadership for prioritizing scientific evidence and unity over misinformation and conjecture, for operationalizing such priorities with campaigns like the Solidarity Clinical Trial, and for continuing to center the health and rights of women, people living with HIV, and other marginalized groups in recommendations for mitigating the harm of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you again for the invaluable work undertaken by the WHO. We stand in solidarity with you, and the frontline health care workers around the world, doing everything possible to save lives during this pandemic.

Signed,

  • Advancing Research on Community Health Systems, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
  • American Jewish World Service
  • American Public Health Association
  • American Sexual Health Association
  • AVAC
  • Bread for the World
  • Catholics for Choice
  • Center for Reproductive Rights
  • Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, University of Michigan
  • CHANGE (Center for Health and Gender Equity)
  • Children’s HeartLink
  • Council for Global Equality
  • Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University
  • DKT International
  • Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
  • Georgetown University O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law
  • The Global Health Justice Partnership (GHJP) at Yale Law School / Yale School of Public Health
  • Global Health Strategies
  • Global Health Technologies Coalition
  • Global Justice Center
  • The Global Justice Institute
  • Global Network of Black People Working in HIV
  • Global Water 2020
  • Global Women’s Institute at George Washington University
  • Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women’s Rights, Yale Law School
  • Guttmacher Institute
  • Gynuity Health Projects
  • Heartland Alliance International
  • Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Planning, Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health
  • HIV Medicine Association
  • Housing Works
  • Human Rights Campaign
  • IAVI
  • Ibis Reproductive Health
  • Infectious Diseases Society of America
  • International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
  • International Partnership for Microbicides
  • International Pediatric Association
  • International Planned Parenthood Federation / Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR)
  • International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
  • International Women’s Health Coalition
  • Ipas
  • John Snow, Inc. (JSI)
  • Management Sciences for Health
  • Medical IMPACT
  • MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights
  • NARAL Pro-Choice America
  • NASTAD
  • National Birth Equity Collaborative
  • OutRight Action International
  • PAI
  • Pathfinder International
  • Planned Parenthood Global
  • Population Council
  • Population Institute
  • Promundo-US
  • PSI
  • Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
  • The Sabin Vaccine Institute
  • Seed Global Health
  • TB Alliance
  • Treatment Action Group
  • US People Living with HIV Caucus
  • White Ribbon Alliance
  • Women Deliver
  • Women’s Refugee Commission
  • Woodhull Freedom Foundation