California joins U.N. health network following U.S. departure from WHO

California said on Friday it will become the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.

The network, comprised ‌of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public ‌health events with the deployment of ‌staff and resources to affected countries.

It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. 

The state’s decision to join the network comes more ​than a year after U.S. ‌President Donald Trump ⁠gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially ‌withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the U.N. health agency’s management of the ‌pandemic.

California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.

“California will ‌not bear ​witness to ‌the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and ‌remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state ​in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”

The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World ⁠Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, ​where they discussed collaborating to detect and ⁠respond to emerging public health threats.

The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.