February 3 (Reuters) – Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said on Tuesday, following the United States’ withdrawal from the United Nations health agency last month.
The move makes Illinois the second state in the country to join the program despite Republican President Donald Trump, after California, also led by a Democratic governor, joined in January. Following an executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office in January 2025, the United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization last month after completing a one-year waiting period.
“I refuse to stand idly by while Donald Trump undermines science and undermines our nation’s ability to detect and respond to global health threats,” Pritzker, an outspoken Trump critic, posted on the social media site X.
“By joining GOARN, the World Health Organization’s coordination network, we are ensuring our public health leaders and the public have the information, expertise and partnerships they need to protect the people of our state,” Pritzker said in a statement.
The network responds to public health events around the world, such as epidemics and disease outbreaks, and consists of more than 360 technical agencies.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez; Editing by Christian Schmolinger)
