CDC is ordered to immediately cease engagement with WHO

Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization, a move that affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe, according to emails sent to staff Monday that were reviewed by the Washington Post.

President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. exit from the global health body last Monday, citing what he described as a mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and other international health crises. This is Trump’s second attempt at withdrawing the United States from the WHO.

According to an email sent from CDC’s deputy director for global health to staff Monday morning, “effective immediately all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means – in person or virtual – must cease their activity and await further guidance.”

The memo continued: “Please ensure your impacted staff receive this message. CDC detailees to WHO have been instructed to pause engaging in any work on behalf of WHO as part of their respective details, and to no longer go to WHO offices until further notice.”

“This goes beyond what they tried to do in 2020,” said one federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “Last time, they didn’t forbid us to engage or even talk. That’s what’s unusual in this circumstance now.”

The WHO has 71 collaborating centers based in the United States, including 18 at CDC. The work affected includes consultation about the makeup of influenza vaccines, which must be updated every year because of the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses.

One of the biggest effects on the CDC will be in its global immunization division, which usually has between 20 and 30 staff assigned to WHO regional offices in more than a dozen countries, said the federal health official.