US participating in influenza vaccine meeting: WHO

The U.S. will participate in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) upcoming meeting on the composition of the influenza vaccine despite officially withdrawing from the global group last month.

The WHO will meet on Feb. 26 in Turkey to discuss the composition of the 2026-2027 flu vaccine for the northern hemisphere.

“The vaccine composition meeting will be taking place later this month. The U.S. will participate in that meeting as far as I understand,” Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said in a press conference Wednesday.

Last month, the U.S. officially withdrew from the WHO following the end of the year-long process to exit the group. The U.S. was a founding member of the WHO and had been part of the organization for nearly 80 years.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed an openness to bringing the U.S. back into the fold and has said he hopes the country reconsiders its withdrawal. States like California, Illinois and New York have moved to join the WHO’s global disease network since the U.S.’s exit.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on the U.S.’s participation in the meeting.

As Van Kerkhove noted, the WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System is composed of more than 150 labs in over 130 countries, including one in the U.S.

Countries rely on the WHO for its recommendation on which strains to target every year. With seasons occurring in reverse, the Southern Hemisphere experiences its flu season before the Northern Hemisphere, at times giving a glimpse into how bad the spread could be that year.