Why California Joins a weekly World Health Organization call : NPR

California Governor Gavin Newsom at the Davos 2026 gathering of political leaders, executives and celebrities. Newsom met with World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the event to discuss collaboration to monitor emerging public health threats.

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg/via Getty Images

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Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg/via Getty Images

At 5 a.m. California time, while it’s still dark outside, a member of the state Department of Public Health receives a weekly call.

The subject? Health emergencies all over the world.

For years, the U.S. federal government has participated in these calls organized by the World Health Organization. Now – as the Trump administration says removed from WHO on its handling of COVID, among other things – California intervenes.

It is the first state to join the WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, also known as GOARN. Dr. Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health, says she has been in contact with other states in hopes of following suit. Illinoisin a press release, said he was “preparing” to join.

“The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the WHO is a reckless decision that will harm all Californians and Americans,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “California will not witness the chaos this decision will cause.”

This decision by States to take matters into their own hands is part of a broader trend, according to Dr. Gavin Yameyprofessor of global health and public policy at Duke University.

“I think it’s a very smart and savvy piece,” Yamey says. “The federal government has abdicated its responsibilities to protect public health, and we are seeing states take steps to continue to be part of the international response to epidemics and emerging threats.”

Not quite a member but still participating

This does not mean that California, for example, could become a full member of the WHO. Many forums and meetings organized by WHO are limited to Member States, that is, national governments. But parts of WHO, like GOARN, are open to a wider range of groups, including nonprofits and multinational organizations, academic centers, and different levels of government. Like the American states.

GOARN is made up of more than 350 groups that work together to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. The network was created in 2000 after leaders realized that a lack of coordination was hampering the response to the outbreak. Since its inception, GOARN has helped organize, analyze and respond to emergencies like SARS, Ebola and Pox.

GOARN members participate in weekly calls, receive regular updates on outbreaks and also have access to the WHO. Epidemic intelligence from open sources platform, which “continuously scans global open sources for signals of outbreaks and health events,” says Pan. “We’ve only just gone through training and been onboarded.”

Pan says participation in the network and platform raises awareness of global health threats and allows the state to respond accordingly. “[It] helps us anticipate threats earlier,” Pan says, pointing to a decline in federal health guidelines, including the lack of a national flu vaccination campaign this flu season.

Indeed, the US federal government has stated that it has no plans to continue participating in groups like GOARN. In a statement sent to NPR earlier this month, the US State Department wrote: “The United States will not participate in regular events led or managed by the WHO. »

“Chart your own path”

Instead, the United States is taking a different approach, striking health and aid deals directly with individual countries. These agreements often include sharing information about outbreaks.

“The United States is charting its own course in global health engagement, grounded in accountability, transparency, and the expertise of America’s public health institutions,” a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told NPR. “States do not determine American foreign policy.”

Not everyone agrees with this position.

Some conservative voices have urged the United States to continue participating in some WHO forums, particularly those that provide information, data and assessments on emerging infectious disease outbreaks. For example, Brett Schaefer — a senior fellow at the right-wing think tank the American Enterprise Institute — said that even if the United States withdraws from the WHO, the United States should continue to participate in initiatives such as the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform “to ensure that you have full and robust access to information.”

This type of international platform would be “a very difficult thing for the United States to replicate or build outside of the World Health Organization – also [it’d be] somewhat inefficient,” says Schaefer.

However, he said via email that California’s decision to join GOARN still hasn’t been made yet. “It’s interesting but unclear at this point,” he wrote, noting that the WHO has not clarified California’s status. He added: “This could also just be a PR stunt on Newsom’s part. »

The WHO did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment on California’s participation in GOARN or any other part of the WHO, as well as which other states have applied to join.

This new model has a potential downside: a divide between states that join the WHO and those that don’t, Yamey says: “You could end up having this horrible, tragic divide” where some state leaders have access to more accurate, more recent information about outbreaks to make public health decisions than leaders of other states, he says.

Pan says California hopes to partner with other states that aren’t joining GOARN. “Our intention is really – recognizing that we are the largest state with the largest state health department – ​​to step up and provide some leadership.”