(The Center Square) – The Republican running for governor in Wisconsin says he will pull the state out of the World Health Organization if he’s elected.
Gov. Tony Evers said in his State of the State speech earlier this week he is signing Wisconsin up for the WHO’s new global organization.
“Public health isn’t a partisan issue, and it isn’t up for debate. And real lives are at stake if we fail to listen,” Evers said during his speech. “It’s why, in the coming weeks, I’ll sign an executive order to have Wisconsin join the World Health Organization’s Global Response Network. We must do what we can to keep our kids, our families, and our communities healthy and safe.”
The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network is a collection of states and local health departments that share public health information. The governor’s office said joining the group will give Wisconsin “timely and direct access to global early-warning alerts, outbreak intelligence and data sharing.”
“I’m not a rocket scientist, but I did teach biology in Baraboo. Maybe if we want to make Americans and Wisconsinites ‘healthy’ again, making health care affordable and accessible would be a great place to start. We could also start by trusting the science, public health experts, and medical professionals who have eradicated diseases and found cures and kept us healthy and safe for decades,” the governor added.
Republican candidate Tom Tiffany immediately disagreed.
“So @GovEvers will share Wisconsin’s health data with the Communist China-corrupted World Health Organization. But he won’t allow the USDA to audit our food stamp rolls for fraud?” Tiffany wrote on X. “Talk about misplaced priorities.”
Evers wouldn’t be the only Democratic governor to join the WHO group. Illinois’ JB Pritzker recently signed his state up, as did the governors in California and New York.
