WHO’s chief Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus is not the only one scratching his head at the moment. The health agency is not the only organization facing major cutbacks and shortfalls. The entire framework of international development and multilateralism is deeply shaken up.

‘Crisis,’ ‘disruption,’ ‘shock,’ ‘crossroads’: the extent and severity of the US leadership’s recent decisions may have come as a surprise to many, but they have followed a long series of alerting moves by many other Member States. 

Their consequences remain to be fully understood or observed, but what is unquestionable is that the system will need to reorient – or even reinvent – itself.