U.S. officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been barred from communicating directly with the World Health Organization during active virus outbreaks, including the resurgent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. CNN reported the policy on May 25, 2026, citing internal documents and sources.
The restriction was first imposed during the hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship and has since been only marginally relaxed. A May 18 internal email instructed staff: “We'll be operating in the same manner for Ebola as we have been doing for Hantavirus, assembling a small group of experts — no more than three.” Even those experts are limited to virtual WHO meetings and to a “listening capacity” only. They cannot share U.S. research, ask questions, or respond to other countries' epidemiological data.
The restrictions follow Trump's January 2026 executive order formally withdrawing the United States from the WHO. The U.S. is the largest historical funder of WHO and a primary contributor of viral-genome data, outbreak modeling, and epidemiological expertise — capabilities the agency uses to coordinate the global response. As of the report, NIAID, the FDA, and the CDC have no permanent directors, and the U.S. has no permanent Surgeon General or Deputy Health Secretary.
The Ebola outbreak in the DRC is escalating. Constraining U.S. expert input during that response increases the probability that a containable outbreak becomes a larger one.