It only took a week for Donald Trump to have America looking like Belarus as a dictator, helped by totally subservient politicians, put governing in the hands of unqualified, unintelligent loyalists. As one commentator asked this week “When did brains go out of fashion!”

Health and science have been immediate targets of the Trump regime with an early announcement that all Federal Government spending on grants supporting science would be suspended. Just why this decision was made is not clear but major, even crucial research programs have been put on hold. I hear from US colleagues that many scientists from other countries are cancelling plans to visit and share their knowledge with American scientists, normally a major influence on successful research.

Federal spending on health grants to other countries is also suspended with many programs in Third World countries hardest hit.

The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has for 60 years published weekly all the information available about current infectious diseases and other public health issues via its publication the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report”. Trump has ordered a communication pause at all federal health agencies. 

A previous director of the CDC noted that “not a day goes by when CDC isn’t tracking a potential threat to our health”. At the moment, information regarding the epidemic of “bird flu” is of vital interest to all countries, including Australia, where the virus is well established. Scientists internationally are monitoring samples of the virus to see if mutations are occurring which might see the virus capable of being spread by humans to other humans. The potential for a pandemic with even more deaths than we saw from Covid infections is of great concern. Weekly information from the US where “Bird Flu” is rampant, is invaluable.

Although it might be impossible to enforce, Trump has issued yet another banning order, this time on “gain-of function” research. Scientist studying viruses that could potentially infect humans are deliberately making small changes to viruses in their laboratories which the organism might make spontaneously, to see if they have , in so doing, “gained function” i.e, the ability to infect humans. Of course, this is conducted in ultra-secure laboratories specifically designed for this work. Studying the H1N1 bird flu virus in this way is of particular importance . 

But it’s Trump’s decision to end America’s membership of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and withdraw its funding of the organisation that has caused the most alarm internationally. The WHO is an indispensable asset in the struggle to constantly improve the health of all who live on this planet, with a particular emphasis on minimising the gross inequities that result in a healthy life for so many millions being unattainable. Lack of funding support from the US will prevent the implementation of many of the important projects planned for 2025.

The US has been a member since the United Nations established the WHO. America contributes about 12% of the organisation’s budget and is its largest donor. The planned budget for 2025 was just over US$6 billion with a major focus this year in finally eradicating polio. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has provided more than US$1 billion to the WHO. The loss of a billion dollars of support from the US will prevent implementation of many projects.

Trump’s animosity to the WHO stems from the organisation’s delay in declaring the SARS-Cov-2 global dissemination a “pandemic”. It is true that, misled by an initially uncooperative China, the WHO did not declare “pandemic” status for the virus till March 2020. That was a mistake. Trump is also convinced that the virus infected the world because of a leak from a virus research laboratory in Wuhan. Many inquiries/studies, discussed in depth here in P&I, have concluded this is most unlikely to be true and as was the case in the two smaller epidemics of a SARS virus ( 2003 and 2011). It was human contact with infected animals that set off the epidemic.

The WHO was the major player in eliminating smallpox globally. The enormous effort the WHO orchestrated during the worst of the AIDS epidemic saved millions of lives. It has hundreds of programs around the world strengthening efforts to combat malnutrition and infection and associated poverty which are proving to be highly effective.

Trump, who is worried about Chinese influence on the WHO doesn’t realise that over the years that it has existed the US has had by far the greatest influence on the WHO’s missions. That will change, of course, if the US is not at the executive table in Geneva!

By the time you read this, I fear that the US Senate would have confirmed Robert Kennedy Jr as head of the Health and Human Services branch of the government with control over the Centre for Disease Control and the National institutes of Health. No-one could be less suited for such a position, so such an outcome would make it clear that Trump the dictator is in absolute control and determined to replace officials with appropriate experience and integrity with minions whose only skill is loyalty. Americans what have you done to yourselves and the rest of the world?