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“There is only one adversary here: the coronavirus. It is in all our best interests to work with and strengthen the World Health Organization.”

Statement from José Luis Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vital Strategies, on the U.S. government’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization (WHO):

“This novel coronavirus is unprecedented, deadly and there is still much we don’t know about how we can stop it. What we do know is that infection anywhere can lead to infection everywhere. Our global response can only be as strong as our weakest link and we urgently need global solidarity to slow and stop the unfolding health and economic harm. 

The World Health Organization is playing a critical and life-saving role, leading global efforts to contain the virus and its harms, gathering and collating information from around the world to provide rapid, evidence-based analysis and technical guidance to governments to support their response.

Saving the lives of people around the world must be our top priority. During this crisis and beyond, our health depends more than ever on the strength of other countries’ health systems, and on strong collaboration with those countries and with the WHO.

There is only one adversary here: the coronavirus. It is in all our best interests to work with and strengthen the WHO.”

About Vital Strategies
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. We work with governments and civil society in more than 70 countries to design and implement evidence-based strategies that tackle their most pressing public health problems. Our goal is to see governments adopt promising interventions at scale as rapidly as possible. To find out more, please visit vstrategystage.wpengine.com or Twitter @VitalStrat.

Media Contact:
Christina Honeysett, +1-914-424-3356/ choneysett@vitalstrategies.org