{"id":438182,"date":"2020-06-05T10:27:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T14:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=438182"},"modified":"2025-03-22T08:53:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T12:53:49","slug":"historian-us-once-saw-world-health-organization-as-part-of-foreign-policy-438182","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/historian-us-once-saw-world-health-organization-as-part-of-foreign-policy-438182\/","title":{"rendered":"Historian: US once saw World Health Organization as part of foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States originally saw the World Health Organization \u201cas an extension of its own foreign policy intentions,\u201d Theodore Brown<\/a>, a Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a> professor emeritus of history and public health sciences, told Claire Bowes, host of the BBC\u2019s Witness History series<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

\n

In the News: Theodore Brown and the WHO<\/h2>\n

BBC’s Witness History: The Origin of the WHO<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Forbes:<\/em>“U.S. Withdrawal from WHO Is Sad for Global Health and Bad for America”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In a BBC report this week exploring the origins, mandate, and behind-the-scenes politicking of the WHO, Brown, a coauthor of The World Health Organization: A History<\/a><\/em>, said that if it took \u201cwinning the hearts and minds of the people with a malaria eradication program\u201d to stop the rapid spread of Communism to poor and developing countries\u2014then the US was willing to help fund that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen fine we\u2019ll do that through bilateral systems,\u201d Brown said in explaining the thinking of the US administration at the time of the founding of the WHO in 1948.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Brown spoke to Forbes<\/a> about President Donald Trump\u2019s threat to withdraw the US from the WHO, calling it \u201cthe height of folly, shortsightedness, and stupidity\u201c that would result in \u201cirreparable damage to the WHO and worldwide efforts to cope with COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown added that, if the president\u2019s \u201cactions match his rhetoric (they don’t always), his reckless decision will also cause immense damage to the United States. Not only will the US leave WHO and its global health partners less able to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic which if left unchecked will threaten the US for years to come, but the US withdrawal will disconnect the country from vital sources of information and collective action which will add an enormous additional threat to the country’s survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s research interests run the gamut from US health policy and politics, to the history of psychosomatic medicine, stress research, and biopsychosocial approaches to clinical practice. Prior to his retirement in 2018, he had been the University\u2019s inaugural Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor of Public Health and Policy, a position he held for five years.
\n<\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\"theodoreTheodore Brown receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Association for the History of Medicine<\/strong><\/a>
\nHistorian Theodore Brown is the recipient of this year\u2019s Genevieve Miller Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM).<\/span><\/div>\n
\"cover
\nHas the World Health Organization measured up?<\/strong><\/a>
\nÄ¢¹½´«Ã½ historian discusses The World Health Organization: A History<\/em>, a comprehensive look at the organization that and two coauthors published in 2019.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the World Health Organization was founded, the United States saw it as an extension of US foreign policy, says a URochester historian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":942,"featured_media":438252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29212],"tags":[21422],"class_list":["post-438182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-opinion","tag-department-of-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHistorian: US once saw World Health Organization as part of foreign policy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When the World Health Organization was founded, the United States saw it as an extension of US foreign policy, says a URochester historian.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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