Joe Biden has just been declared the winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. And with him in the White House, and a strong global health advisory team supporting him, the world can finally look forward to the United States returning to a multilateral approach to managing global crises. Never before has an election meant so much when it comes to pandemic preparedness and response. Now is the time for the United States to cooperate with countries across the world to suppress the coronavirus in a coordinated way.
President Donald Trump has blamed his own administration’s failings to control the coronavirus on the World Health Organization and on China. The WHO has unfairly borne the brunt of this criticism, with Trump withdrawing the United States from WHO membership. This position confuses what the WHO can and cannot do. The WHO cannot point fingers, do investigations, or force countries to reveal information if they don’t want to. It is a member-state body that works through consensus, soft norms, and diplomacy.
