U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrived in Buenos Aires for a visit over May 25-27, during which he met with President Javier Milei, with Argentine Health Minister Mario Lugones and with other government officials. In their May 26 meeting, RFK, Jr., and Lugones issued a joint statement announcing Argentina’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), described as a simultaneous decision by the U.S. and Argentine governments. Faulting the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the statement argued that “increasing politicization” of the WHO, and its vulnerability to “the influence of non-scientific agendas” led to both countries’ withdrawal, opening the “beginning of a new path—toward building a modern global health cooperation model grounded in scientific integrity, transparency, sovereignty and accountability.”
The Argentine government is openly embracing the very questionable and ideological aspects of Kennedy’s healthcare agenda, particularly regarding vaccines and public health. A key purpose of Kennedy’s trip, in fact, was to discuss the reform and deregulation of Argentina’s healthcare system, for which he met with the budget-slashing Minister for Deregulation and Transformation of the State Federico Sturzenegger. This has alarmed many medical professionals and organizations that fear a further assault on a healthcare system which has already suffered from Milei’s murderous “chainsaw” austerity program.
The joint statement’s assertion that Milei’s government is making “rapid progress in rebuilding and strengthening” the “devastated” healthcare system he says he inherited, is a baldfaced lie. He has dismantled the country’s once excellent healthcare system, eliminating key protections for citizens, such as subsidized medication for retirees, free drugs for cancer patients, and slashed the budget for healthcare institutions—hospitals, medical schools, university clinics and research centers—resulting in firing thousands of medical professionals, scientists and healthcare workers.
Following his meeting with Kennedy, Lugones announced a package of new policies to reflect the alliance with Kennedy and Trump, including a new focus on production, approval and supervision of vaccines, to ensure these are based on “public, verifiable evidence with sufficient controls.” As reported by Estrategia & Negocios these changes will include carrying out an “exhaustive structural review” of national healthcare agencies to root out “obsolete practices.”
