SPRINGFIELD: Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) following the United States’ departure from the UN health agency last month, Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said on Tuesday.
The move makes Illinois the second US state to join the program in defiance of Republican President Donald Trump after California, also led by a Democratic governor, joined in January.
The US formally left the WHO last month after completing a one-year waiting period following an executive order that Trump signed on his first day back in office in January 2025.
