U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the two countries discussed the creation of an ‘alternative international health system.’
Health officials in the U.S. and Argentine governments announced on May 27 that they want other countries to join the two nations after both withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this year.
A joint statement released by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Argentine Minister of Health Mario Lugones noted that both countries removed themselves from the WHO in recent months, namely because of what they termed as misdeeds and mistakes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious structural and operational shortcomings that undermined global trust and highlighted the urgent need for independent, science-based leadership in global health,” their statement reads.
The statement notes that they have concerns “regarding the early management of the pandemic and the risks associated with certain types of research” and that the WHO had “failed to provide critical access to information, impairing countries’ ability to act swiftly and effectively, with devastating global consequences.”
The two health officials said that both the United States and Argentina will invite other nations “to join us in shaping a new era of global health cooperation,” which is focused on what they say are “results, sovereignty, and a safer future for all.”
It comes as Kennedy posted on social media platform X that he met with Argentine President Javier Milei about their countries’ mutual removal from the WHO and “the creation of an alternative international health system based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control.”
Neither the joint statement nor Kennedy’s post indicated whether the joint initiative would be specifically an alternative to the WHO, nor did it provide a name for it. Other details were not provided.
On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an order that started the process of removing the United States from the WHO. Milei did the same in February.
Trump’s order states that the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises” were sufficient reasons to remove the United States from the United Nations-backed health body.
“China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO,” the White House said.
Weeks later, the WHO announced that it had approved a pandemic agreement to deal with possible future health emergencies. Trump’s January order states that the pandemic accord “will have no binding force on the United States.”
Last week, Kennedy released a statement calling on other countries to leave the WHO because, in part, China and other countries “have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public,” despite the United States providing significantly more funding to the health body.
In 2020, Trump attempted to withdraw the United States from the WHO in response to what U.S. officials have said is the Chinese regime’s attempt to cover up the spread of COVID-19 in late 2019. That decision was rescinded by President Joe Biden after he took office in 2021.