US withdrawal from WHO and freeze on foreign aid means other governments must step up
On the first day of his term, President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). Days later, the US State Department reinstated the global gag rule and issued a freeze on foreign aid, leading, among other things, to a devastating halt in the distribution of life-saving HIV drugs by PEPFAR. It is clear that these decisions by one of the largest donors in global health directly impacts the health of millions of people in the world. Governments around the world must step up to sustain current funding in the short term, while working towards a more sustainable global health system in the future.