The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration took part in a World Health Organization meeting to discuss flu vaccine composition ahead of the upcoming influenza season, an official at the UN agency said on Friday. President Donald Trump, who started a 12-month withdrawal process for the US to leave the WHO, has said he may consider rejoining the agency. "We hope that the pause in the work that we're doing with the US is temporary and we hope that we will be able to resume that in full force in the coming weeks," said Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention at WHO. Despite its broader pullback from the WHO, the US has not moved to quit the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the agency's regional office for the Americas. The WHO said the US agencies have been contributing information to its Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. "There's information that's coming out from the US Department of Agriculture on the animal side, so I want to be very clear that the US is still contributing," Kerkhove said. The comments came on the sidelines of an event where the WHO announced its recommendations for the composition of influenza vaccines for 2025-2026 in the Northern Hemisphere. The global health body has recommended that vaccines include updated H3N2 strains, mirroring the composition advised for the Southern Hemisphere. It also recommended that zoonotic vaccines include two additional strains of bird flu viruses, partly in response to a human case detected last year in Australia. However, disruptions have been reported in vaccine-related regulatory meetings in the US after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month.
