World Health Organization Funding is Vital to Combat the Coronavirus and Ensure Health Equity
American Academy of Nursing Statement
April 17, 2020
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to have a devastating impact on the health and safety of individuals and communities, international coordination is essential. In every corner of the world, labs, research centers, universities, and private industry are investigating how to slow the spread, test more effectively, discover antibodies, and ultimately develop a vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) is vital to these collective efforts. The United States must continue to fund WHO so that there is no interruption to their work.
The American Academy of Nursing has a clear and distinct focus on social determinants of health and uses this lens to advance policies. The recent information locally regarding health inequities and how the virus is affecting developing countries presents a pervasive threat to health equity everywhere. Critical investment by the U.S. in WHO advances global access to resources and protects global health security.
The demand for evidence is great and the mission is clear—save lives now and protect them in the future. As we have seen throughout this pandemic, danger to international health is a danger to local health due to the increasing interconnectedness of our world. Now is the time to engage in more global health diplomacy, not less. The U.S. commitment to the WHO during this pandemic must remain strong.
Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN
President
American Academy of Nursing
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Global Health and the Future Role of the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24737.
American Academy of Nursing Policy Brief: Global health diplomacy: An integrative review of the literature and implications for nursing. Nursing Outlook 61 (March 2013) 85-92.