In brief
Health professionals express concern that President Trump's decision to exit the WHO could threaten the safety protocols related to smallpox storage, research, and inspections, potentially enabling dangerous ramifications globally.
President Trump’s directive for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) is raising alarms among health experts regarding the safety protocols related to the smallpox virus. This action could dismantle long-standing programs designed to manage the remnants of a virus that historically took millions of lives, disrupt research efforts, and escalate fears of potential weaponization.Thomas R. Frieden, the former CDC director, described the secure smallpox storage facility in Atlanta as resembling something from a science fiction film, emphasizing the need for transparency to mitigate risks. In a recent article on the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s blog, Dartmouth professor Daniel R. Lucey articulated that Trump's withdrawal could significantly undermine systems overseeing smallpox virus storage and experimentation.The WHO achieved a monumental feat in eradicating smallpox from human populations around 1980. However, two secured repositories—one in Atlanta and another in Russia—remain to enable research in the event of its re-emergence. Both are maintained in high-security laboratories classified as Biosafety Level 4 to prevent any leaks.Health professionals strongly advocate for continued international collaboration and inspection practices as essential to safeguarding against the resurgence of such a lethal pathogen. Without the WHO's guidance, they predict dangerous gaps in smallpox monitoring could emerge, compromising not just U.S. safety, but global health security as a whole.
