The Washington Post
May 17, 2001
“Professional Groups Lose International Delegation Spots” by Karen DeYoung
“The American Public Health Association assumed it would be invited to join the official U.S. delegation to this week’s World Health Assembly in Geneva. As the nation’s oldest and largest organization of public health professionals, the APHA has been a U.S. delegate to the annual meeting of the world’s health ministers for many years…”
Instead, “… ‘five private-sector advisors’ are on the official team,” along with Tommy Thompson and other government officials, that will discuss issues such as global strategies for infant and child feeding, the AIDS pandemic, strengthening health systems, and the health effects of depleted uranium.
Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association:
“I think this is setting a bad precedent. This is not at all what America is about. It doesn’t matter who the president is, we represent the people. That’s what has put us above all the other countries in the world…. Now, we’re the same as third world countries where they bring in their friends and make a mess of things.”
Comment: Is the APHA is being punished for supporting health care for everyone?