US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) for being 'a little late' in identifying the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Rubio said the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were leading the response, but the WHO had been slow to detect the outbreak.
Rubio's comments come after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the WHO, a move that experts say has weakened global health security. The US departure led to the loss of nearly a quarter of the WHO's workforce, about 2,000 jobs. Despite sweeping aid cuts last year, the US has committed approximately $13 million in assistance and plans to open around 50 clinics to treat Ebola in the DRC.
The WHO declared the Ebola outbreak a 'public health emergency of international concern' on Sunday, citing concerns over its 'scale and speed'. The outbreak has killed an estimated 131 people in the DRC. The WHO warned that neighbouring countries are at high risk due to population mobility and trade, but advised against closing borders or restricting travel, as such measures can be counterproductive.
Immunologist Gigi Gronvall of Johns Hopkins University rejected Rubio's criticism, stating that the WHO is operating with limited resources in a difficult setting with security challenges. She warned that the US is now worse off to handle infectious disease threats than at the start of Covid-19, calling the public health cuts a 'strategic mistake' and a national security vulnerability.
The US health agencies continue to face sweeping layoffs under Trump's second term. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to eliminate dozens of positions across agencies including the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, following an earlier announcement to reduce the workforce by 10,000 jobs. Experts have raised concerns about the US's preparedness for future pandemics.
