US opting out won't be good for anyone: WHO ex-chief scientist Swaminathan

Former chief scientist of the World Health Organisation, Soumya Swaminathan on Saturday said the US opting out of WHO would not be good for anyone including that country and contributions to the global health watchdog depends on the GDPs of respective countries.

Hoping that the US, which has so much technical and scientific expertise, will reconsider its decision, she said if it opts out, the North American nation would also be unable to access data of WHO to be part of solutions.

"The richer the country, the more you pay because you have to pay as a percentage of your GDP. The current system is very fair. You cannot expect a small country in the middle of Africa like Congo to pay the same amount as the United States," Swaminathan told PTI Videos, on the sidelines of the Hyderabad Literary Festival here.

She was responding to US President Donald Trump's comments that his country with 325 million population paid USD 500 million to the WHO against China with 1.4 billion people paying USD 39 million.

Trump recently signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing America from the WHO, the second time in less than five years that the US has made a move to withdraw from the world body.

She opined that for health security in the future and to protect people from pandemics, all countries, including the US, need to work together.

"Even the United States will actually find it difficult to access data to be part of solutions to know what is going on in the other parts of the world if they are not part of WHO," Swaminathan said.

"I think it is really not good for anyone that such an important, such a large country is withdrawing."  Asserting that health is interconnected and all the health risks are global, she said today viruses arising in one part of the world can spread around the world within 30 hours.

"So unless we have global collaboration and global policies and rules and regulations and understanding between countries, it is going to be impossible to address the threats to global health," Swaminathan said.

She said the WHO is one place and platform where 193 countries come together and discuss issues, debate and arrive at a consensus before formulating rules like international health regulations and pandemic treaties.