Fauci leads US delegation to WHO executive board, announces US will remain a WHO member
On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed letters retracting the previous administration's notification of withdrawal from the WHO. The next day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as Chief Medical Adviser to the President, led the US delegation to the WHO Executive Board meeting and announced the United States would remain a member, fulfill its financial obligations, cease the drawdown of seconded staff, and join COVAX. Fauci also said the US would work to 'strengthen and reform the WHO' and called for a 'robust and clear' international investigation into the pandemic's origins.
Primary quotes
“I am honored to announce that the United States will remain a member of the World Health Organization.”
WHO Executive Board remarks, January 21, 2021
Linked sources
Related contentions
Unresolved. Both the evidentiary record (the tweet, the internal recordings, the joint report's terms of access, and Tedros's caveats) and its interpretation remain contested: whether the WHO's approach was a reasonable accommodation to its limited authority or a failure of independence is a judgment on which governments, scientists, and official reviews have not converged.