{"id":22038,"date":"2025-02-12T09:04:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T10:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22038"},"modified":"2025-02-12T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T10:27:24","slug":"trumps-w-h-o-exit-throws-smallpox-defenses-into-upheaval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22038","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s W.H.O. Exit Throws Smallpox Defenses Into Upheaval"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Health experts see his retreat from international cooperation as disrupting the safe-keepers of one of the world\u2019s deadliest pathogens.<\/p>\n

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President Trump\u2019s order that the United States exit<\/a> the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache.<\/p>\n

Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.\u2019s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease. They add that it could also raise fears among allies and adversaries that the United States, under a veil of secrecy, might weaponize the smallpox virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in that lab,\u201d said Thomas R. Frieden<\/a>, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where the American cache resides. \u201cImagine a submarine inside a building and the people walking around in spacesuits. It looks like something out of a movie.\u201d To reduce smallpox risks and misperceptions, Dr. Frieden added, \u201cwe need to open ourselves up to inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Daniel R. Lucey<\/a>, a Dartmouth medical professor, posted an article<\/a> on the blog of the Infectious Diseases Society of America warning that Mr. Trump\u2019s W.H.O. exit could imperil \u201csmallpox virus storage, experiments, reporting and inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A half century ago, the W.H.O. purged the smallpox virus<\/a> from human populations after the scourge had killed people for thousands of years. Dr. Frieden called it \u201cone of the greatest accomplishments not just of medical science but global collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the germ was eradicated in people, two repositories were preserved to allow study of the virus should it re-emerge: one in Atlanta, the other in Russia. To curb leaks, both caches are stored in special labs classified as Biosafety Level 4<\/a>, the highest tier of protection.<\/p>\n

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Health experts see his retreat from international cooperation as disrupting the safe-keepers of one of the world\u2019s deadliest pathogens.President Trump\u2019s order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache.Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.\u2019s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease. They add that it could also raise fears among allies and adversaries that the United States, under a veil of secrecy, might weaponize the smallpox virus.\u201cI\u2019ve been in that lab,\u201d said Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where the American cache resides. \u201cImagine a submarine inside a building and the people walking around in spacesuits. It looks like something out of a movie.\u201d To reduce smallpox risks and misperceptions, Dr. Frieden added, \u201cwe need to open ourselves up to inspection.\u201dOn Monday, Daniel R. Lucey, a Dartmouth medical professor, posted an article on the blog of the Infectious Diseases Society of America warning that Mr. Trump\u2019s W.H.O. exit could imperil \u201csmallpox virus storage, experiments, reporting and inspections.\u201dA half century ago, the W.H.O. purged the smallpox virus from human populations after the scourge had killed people for thousands of years. Dr. Frieden called it \u201cone of the greatest accomplishments not just of medical science but global collaboration.\u201dWhile the germ was eradicated in people, two repositories were preserved to allow study of the virus should it re-emerge: one in Atlanta, the other in Russia. To curb leaks, both caches are stored in special labs classified as Biosafety Level 4, the highest tier of protection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22040,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22041,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038\/revisions\/22041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}