An official from the United Nations agency said Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration participated in a World Health Organization meeting to discuss the composition of the flu vaccine.
President Donald Trump began a 12-month withdrawal process that allowed the United States to leave the World Health Organization on the first day of his tenure in January, and has since oversee the demolition of U.S. foreign aid, which has been penetrated into health programs worldwide.
“We hope that the pauses we are doing with the United States are temporary and we hope we can recover with all our might in the coming weeks,” said Maria van Kerkhove, director of the WHO WHO epidemic and pandemic preparation and prevention.
“There is information from the USDA animal side, so I want to be very clear that the United States is still contributing,” Krkhoff said.
Comments appeared on the sidelines of an event that announced recommendations on the composition of flu vaccines in the Northern Hemisphere for 2025-2026.
Global health agencies recommend vaccines include newer H3N2 strains to reflect the recommended ingredients in the Southern Hemisphere.
It also recommends that zoonotic vaccines include two other strains of the avian influenza virus, in part response to human cases discovered in Australia last year.
A new report from three doctors says that persistent post-infection coughs are often resolved over time this winter.
Although the United States’ WHO’s pullback is wider, the United States has not yet resigned from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the American Professional Health Agency and the United States’ Regional Office of the United States’ Americas.
However, earlier this month, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, reports of interruptions in the U.S. vaccine-related regulatory meeting.
