Illinois joins WHO's global disease network

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) announced Tuesday that his state is joining the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, becoming the second state to do so since the U.S.’s withdrawal from the organization became official last month.

Officials said Illinois’s participation means the state will now be “directly connected to timely global alert, expert public health networks, and international response capabilities essential to protecting Illinois residents from emerging disease threats.”

Pritzker, in a statement, slammed President Trump’s decision to pull out of the WHO after nearly 80 years of membership.

“By withdrawing from the World Health Organization, Donald Trump has undermined science and weakened our nation’s ability to detect and respond to global health threats,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“Across our state and alongside valued partners around the world, Illinois will continue to put science, preparedness, and people first,” he added.

Pritzker is among a group of Democratic governors who launched the Governors’ Public Health Alliance last October in an apparent rebuke of the Trump administration’s public health policies.

Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office last January, initiating an exit from the WHO over an alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and “other global health crises.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the U.S. in a press conference last month to reconsider its position, calling the move a “lose-lose” situation.

“It’s not really the right decision, I want to say bluntly, because I believe that there are many things that are done through WHO that benefits the U.S., and only the WHO does, and especially the health security issues,” Ghebreyesus said. “That’s why I say the U.S. cannot be safe without working with the WHO.”

California was the first state to join the WHO’s global disease monitoring network, a decision Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said was motivated by the Trump administration’s “reckless decision.”

“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement.