3 ways Canadians will be affected by the cuts to WHO's funding

This column is an opinion by Dr. Ali Okhowat, who is a former health emergency officer of the World Health Organization and a physician in New Westminster, B.C. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

With more than 2.4 million cases and 163,000 deaths confirmed globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has made tragically clear the importance of having strong disease surveillance and public health systems. 

I previously served as a proud member of WHO's Health Emergencies Program at its headquarters in Geneva and its Eastern Mediterranean regional office in Cairo. My work there has made it clear to me that there is no international institution better positioned to do this critical work other than the World Health Organization. 

Whether it was alarming cases of neonatal hypothermia in Syria, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa or the ravaging effects of war on Yemen's health system, I experienced first-hand the critical role that WHO plays in helping communities to prevent, respond to and recover from all types of health hazards.

That's why it's so concerning to see the WHO's biggest funder, the United States, halt funding to the organization — in the midst of a pandemic — and to see politicians like Andrew Scheer challenge Canada's use of WHO data. 

WHO's experience in developing international standards, providing technical expertise, and supporting health services make it an essential global institution. Yet it can only remain so if it has sufficient and predictable funding to fulfil its mission. 

WHO's 2020-2021 budget of $4.8 billion US is less than a third of how much B.C.'s provincial government is estimated to spend during the same time period. Yet as the global guardian of public health, its mandate is significantly more broad and complex. It oversees several programs that inform countries' COVID-19 response efforts.

Significantly cutting WHO's funding would hamper its ability to help its 194 member states. For Canada, there would be three main repercussions.

First, WHO coordinates critical knowledge-sharing groups that work on the development of diagnostics and treatments, including vaccine trials. For example, Canada was among the first members to join the "Solidarity" clinical trial for COVID-19 treatments, which is a WHO-led international trial that seeks to evaluate treatment options against COVID-19. Patients in different countries are enrolled to compare local treatment options to proposed alternatives. No one country alone could ever carry out these trials in such a short period across different clinical settings and with varied patient populations.  

Second, if there ever was a time when we as Canadians need to appreciate the importance of supporting other countries' health systems, it is now. How well we control the spread of COVID-19 outside Canada affects how well we can do so at home. WHO has bought and shipped personal protective equipment to 133 countries and supplied 1.5 million diagnostic kits to 126 countries as of early April. These have guided COVID-19 testing at home and even spurred innovations to find better ways to test for COVID-19.

Without these critical supplies, fragile health systems that urgently need WHO's help to control nascent outbreaks may quickly become overwhelmed. Not only would this prolong the pandemic's pernicious health effects and paralysis on trade, but it could result in millions more direct and indirect deaths worldwide due to delayed or insufficient public health interventions.   

Lastly, the Public Health Agency of Canada's guidance to Canadians is, in large part, based on the evidence and recommendations from the WHO. For example, if British Columbia wants to lift restrictions on stay-at-home orders, our public health officers will be considering the six factors that WHO recently released to ensure that we do so safely. 

The WHO has published more than 40 COVID-19 related technical documents. At home, these helped to shape everything from Canada's COVID-19 response strategy down to the establishment of our own Fraser Northwest COVID-19 Assessment Clinic — where I am the clinic's physician Lead — a COVID-19 testing site that exists so that doctors won't have to assess patients with potential COVID-19 diagnoses in their own offices where they are short of personal protective equipment, such as gloves, gowns, face shields and masks.

Other protocols that we use across Canada — from the personal protective equipment we use when we see COVID-19 patients to the treatments we offer patients who are fighting COVID-19 disease and the advice we give regarding how people can decrease their risk of contracting COVID-19 — have been modelled on the advice contained in these documents.

WHO therefore needs more — not less — funding at this critical time to continue its important work. The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund is one such way to accelerate WHO's ability to support a unified response. Governments, corporations and people looking to strengthen response efforts should be doubling down on support for such initiatives that multiply the effects of collective actions against our common threat. 

Debates will nevertheless continue regarding the data and decisions communicated in the early days of the novel coronavirus' discovery as well as those that emerge as we continue to learn more about the novel coronavirus.

As Canadians, let's focus our fight against COVID-19 on solidarity, science and solutions. An empowered WHO will help us get there.