THE PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION (PAHO):
Protecting health and defending the Americas for more than a century
Signatories
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Ronald R. Blanck, 39th Army Surgeon General of the United States
Donna Shalala, 18th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Former U.S. Representative for Florida’s 27th district
Tommy G. Thompson, 19th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; 42nd Governor of Wisconsin
Lt. General (Ret.) Eric Schoomaker, 42nd Army Surgeon General; Former Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command
Fred Upton, Former U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 6th and 4th Districts; Former Chairman, House Energy and Commerce Committee
Rear Adm. (Ret) R. Tim Ziemer, Former U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator; Former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, U.S. National Security Council
Tom Frieden, Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; President and CEO, Resolve to Save Lives
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Paul Friedrichs, Former Director, White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy
Margaret Hamburg, 21st Commissioner of U.S. Food and Drugs; Former Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Health and Human Services
Vice Adm. (Ret.) Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States
Tom Inglesby, Center for Health Security, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Andrew Natsios, 13th Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Gerald Parker, Former Director, White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy
Amb. Jimmy Kolker, Former Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Health and Human Services; Former Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Uganda
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Lester Martinez-Lopez, Former Assistant Secretary for Defense for Health Affairs
Rear Adm. (Ret.) Kenneth Bernard, Former Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense; Former Assistant Surgeon General
Georges C. Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer, American Public Health Association
Jack Leslie, Former Chairman, Weber Shandwick
Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO, Infectious Diseases Society of America
Jamie Bay Nishi, CEO, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Karen Goraleski, CEO Emeritus, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Deborah Rosenblum, Former Assistant Secretary for Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs
Seth Berkley, Former CEO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Founder and Former President and CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
David Quammen, Author, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
Stefano Bertuzzi, CEO, American Society for Microbiology
Gabrielle Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO, Panorama; Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network
Michael Osterholm, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota
Steve Morrison, Senior Vice President, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ronald T. Piervincenzi, CEO, U.S. Pharmacopeia
Anthony Lakavage, Executive Vice President, Global External Affairs, U.S. Pharmacopeia
Chris Colwell, Vice President, U.S. Pharmacopeia
Heather Anderson, CEO Global Health Corps
Dean Goodermote, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Kammerle Schneider, Chief, Global Health Programs, PATH
Michael Merson, School of Global Public Health, New York University; Inaugural Dean, School of Public Health, Yale University
Ana B. Amaya, College of Health Professions, Pace University
Russell J. Andrews, NASA Ames Research Center
Robert Aronson, Messiah University
Helen Arteaga, Deputy Mayor, Health and Human Services, City of New York
Michelle Arteaga, School of Medicine, Stanford University
Bruce Barrett, University of Wisconsin-Madison
John Barry, Historian; Author of The Great Influenza
Rabbi Eliot J. Baskin, Shalom Park Elder Community
Amie Batson, President, WomenLift Health
Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director, MedGlobal
Sara Beste, School of Medicine, Creighton University
Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, Chair, Buddhist Global Relief
Jo Ivey Boufford, School of Global Public Health, New York University
Taylor Burkholder, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Donald S. Burke, School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
Ricardo Castillo, University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Chen, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Venerable Thubten Chodron, Founder and Abbess, Sravasti Abbey
Christopher G. Chute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Alberto Colorado, Executive Director, Americas TB Coalition; Founder, acTBistas
Timothy Conley, Vice President, MedGlobal
Brian Dawes, School of Medicine, Stanford University
Janet Dewan, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Venerable Ayya Dhammadīpā, Founder and Guiding Teacher, Dassanāya Buddhist Community
Monica Maria Diaz, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Jane Drake, University of California, San Francisco
Sean Duffy, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ann Evensen, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lori Garg, Vayu Global Health Foundation
Carlos G. Gartner, Maine Health Institute for Research
Jennifer Gaver, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Kelly Gettig, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
Thomas Glynn, Mayo Clinic Global Bridges Initiative
Daniel Green, Maimonides Medical Center
Rev. David Gushee, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University
Christina Holt, University of Kansas
Anneka Hooft, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Linda Kaste, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois Chicago
Katherine Kemper, Global Bridges Healthcare Alliance, Mayo Clinic
Venerable Sangye Khadro, Teacher, Sravasti Abbey, Newport
Jessica Conway, Synergetic
Maria Santiago, Western Governors University
Grace Kistner, School of Nursing and School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Deborah Kochevar, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University
Eileen Lake, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Molly Lamb, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz
Christopher LeBoa, University of California, Berkeley
Orin Levine, President and CEO, Washington Research Foundation
Rabbi Dennis Linson, Executive Director, Temple Judea, Laguna Woods
Jody Lori, School of Nursing, University of Michigan
Andrea Lourie, Denison University
Catherine Machalaba, The Nature Conservancy
James Macinko, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles
Marian Marian, University of California San Diego
Mark W. Meyer, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
Maud Mwakasungula, Women's Coalition Against Cancer
Anne O’Keefe, School of Medicine, Creighton University
Babatunde Olowokure, School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago
Peter Orris, University of Illinois Chicago
Ronald Pust, College of Medicine, University of Arizona
Juan Carlos Puyana, University of Pittsburgh
Maya Rao, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University
Jessica Rettig, Denison University
Nancy R. Reynolds, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University
Vincent Silenzio, School of Public Health, Rutgers University
Sydney Spangler, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Paul Spiegel, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Heather Stark, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida
Gabriella Stern, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University
Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Chairman, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
Anisha Sudarshan, Michigan Public Health Institute
Angela Sy, School of Medicine, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
Michelle Telfer, School of Nursing, Yale University
Joseph Tucker, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Sten Vermund, College of Public Health, University of South Florida
Lynda Wilson, School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dean Winslow, School of Medicine, Stanford University
Veronika Wirtz, School of Public Health, Boston University
Kasra Zarei, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Donald Zeigler, American Medical Association
Steven Buchsbaum, President, Pole Creek Foundation
Esther M. Johnston, Academic Family Physician
Rachel Kreier, St. Joseph’s University
Colin McIff, Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetrics, Trauma, and Anesthesia Care
Maria Munoz, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University
Darcy Abrams, Smile Train
Doug Fountain, Christian Connections for International Health
Open Letter in Support of U.S. Engagement in the Pan American Health Organization
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)—which was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1902—has been a powerful investment in U.S. health security and the health and well-being of the broader Western Hemisphere. For 124 years, it has been one of the most effective health and disease prevention organizations operating anywhere in the world.
We believe that the U.S. should continue to lead and engage with PAHO. We also believe that the U.S. should sustain its investment in PAHO. Doing so ensures PAHO’s work protects Americans and American interests in this biologically dangerous world.
PAHO protects Americans from growing disease threats
PAHO was founded under President Theodore Roosevelt two years before work began on the Panama Canal. Its founding purpose was unambiguously practical: protect American commerce and public health by controlling infectious disease in the hemisphere.
While the diseases that made PAHO necessary then have diminished due to its work, grave new threats continue to emerge. H5N1 avian influenza, dengue, chikungunya, and leishmaniasis are circulating in the U.S. New World Screwworm was identified in the U.S. for the first time in six decades. And migration through the Darién Gap rainforest is carrying unfamiliar pathogens northward. A nation that cannot detect and contain disease threats at their source cannot fully protect its people at home. PAHO is a critical part of that defense in the Western Hemisphere.
PAHO is at the center of detecting and responding to threats that impact Americans and the Americas. In the last few years, we have seen how vulnerable we are to infectious disease outbreaks. The reemergence of the Bundibuygyo species of Ebolavirus in Africa and the Andean strain of hantavirus on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic are just the most recent examples.
PAHO offices in 26 countries form an extraordinary disease surveillance network that bilateral investments alone can never replicate. Being part of PAHO gives the U.S. early warnings before they reach American communities and farms.
PAHO’s disease surveillance network provides the U.S. with critical early warnings of disease threats
PAHO has an unmatched record of protecting health
PAHO helped lead the Americas to become the first region in the world to eliminate polio, rubella, measles, and maternal and neonatal tetanus, and it led the first hemispheric effort to eradicate smallpox.
In 2018, when a measles outbreak threatened to spread northward from Venezuela (a country with which the U.S. had a strained relationship), PAHO took the lead and immunized nearly 9 million children. Last year, PAHO partnered with Pfizer, the Government of Argentina, and regional manufacturers to develop locally produced pneumonia vaccines accessible across the region.
All of this comes at a remarkably modest cost. The U.S. annual contribution to PAHO's budget is just 0.0011% of total federal spending.
PAHO advances important U.S. economic interests and national security in the Western Hemisphere
The U.S. Administration’s National Security Strategy (2025) highlights the unique importance of the Western Hemisphere to American security and prosperity. This is particularly so for health. Where diseases emerge, they do not remain for long. Sooner or later, they arrive at our borders, our farms, and our markets.
In this context, sustaining U.S. leadership in PAHO is an America First strategy in practice. PAHO protects American troops and diplomats stationed throughout the hemisphere, as well as Americans studying abroad and traveling. It keeps American markets open for business. And its pooled procurement mechanisms—which supply vaccines and medicines to much of the region—help make the Americas healthy while creating reliable, large-scale demand that benefits U.S. manufacturers and suppliers. A U.S. withdrawal from PAHO would not leave a vacuum; it would leave an opening that strategic competitors are prepared to fill.
PAHO serves American interests and reflects American values
PAHO was founded on U.S. soil, by U.S. leadership, and built on the conviction that American leadership in this hemisphere produces results. For 124 years, the U.S. has not only successfully engaged with PAHO but has been the moving force behind PAHO’s work that serves American interests and reflects American values.
Now is the time for the U.S to reaffirm its leadership in PAHO and meet America’s funding obligations to the Organization. At a time when infectious disease threats continue to cross borders, we urge policymakers in Washington to reassert America’s commitment to health security in the Western Hemisphere and recognize PAHO's essential role in safeguarding the American homeland.
MEDIA CONTACT
Gabriella Stern, gstern@globalhealthstrategies.com