The Trump administration is an international health emergency

Covid 19 was the last Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Our guests in this podcast think that the Trump Administration should be declared the next one.

Joining Kamran Abbasi are, Fatima Hassan,  human rights lawyer and Director of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa, and Matthew Herder, Director of the Health Justice Institute at Dalhousie University in Canada explain why they think that the actions and consequences of the Whitehouse meet the bar for WHO to delcare an emergency

We examine the global consequences of recent US policy shifts, including:

• The withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its implications for international health governance.

• Significant funding cuts to global health programs, including PEPFAR and the CDC, and how these disruptions affect life-saving HIV and TB treatments in the Global South.

• The rise of "unhinged nationalism" in health policy, from North American measles outbreaks to the extraction of trade concessions in exchange for medical aid.

• The role of US health leadership in fueling vaccine hesitancy and dismantling scientific research at the NIH.

Reading list:

• Trump and his administration as a public health emergency of international concern

• Why the expanded global gag rule is a deadly triple tripwire for recipients of US foreign aid

• The power of the markets: the scandal that keeps on taking