GENEVA — World Health Assembly delegates gathered at the Palais des Nations on Friday raised formal concerns about the integrity of national preventive health institutions following the dismissal of senior leaders of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to WHO officials and diplomats present at the session.

The firing of the panel's leadership — reported Thursday — drew immediate international attention at the WHA, where member states were already debating the WHO's global framework for cancer screening and preventive health guidelines. Several European delegations, including those of France, Germany, and the Netherlands, called for a WHA resolution reaffirming that cancer screening and preventive health recommendations must remain insulated from political interference and grounded in independent scientific review.

The resolution, if adopted, would urge all WHO member states to maintain transparent, evidence-based processes for setting preventive health guidelines, with independent expert panels shielded from executive dismissal. U.S. delegates were understood to have abstained or offered limited comment, reflecting the sensitivity of the issue domestically. India's delegation, represented by Health Minister J.P. Nadda, voiced support for the principle of scientific independence while stopping short of directly criticising Washington.

Public health advocates outside the assembly welcomed the diplomatic pressure. 'When the body that recommends mammograms and colorectal cancer screenings loses its leadership overnight, it creates real uncertainty for clinicians and patients,' said Dr. Agnès Soucat, a senior health policy adviser who addressed a side event at the WHA. 'The international community has a legitimate interest in saying that evidence, not politics, must drive these decisions.'

The development adds a transatlantic dimension to ongoing tensions over U.S. health policy under the current administration. With the USPSTF vacancy now drawing WHO-level attention, pressure is expected to mount on Congress to codify the panel's independence through legislation, a move that a bipartisan group of senators had previously floated but not advanced.