{"id":801,"date":"2026-05-19T15:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/05\/19\/greenlanders-not-guinea-pigs-for-us-health-minister\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:40:07","slug":"greenlanders-not-guinea-pigs-for-us-health-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=801","title":{"rendered":"Greenlanders not \u2018guinea pigs\u2019 for US \u2013 health minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US-proposed assessment of the island\u2019s healthcare system is \u201cdeeply problematic,\u201d Anna Wangenheim has said<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government of Greenland has condemned an unofficial visit by a US doctor to assess the island\u2019s healthcare system during an American diplomatic trip to Nuuk.<\/p>\n

The controversy comes amid US President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated threats to take over the autonomous Danish territory.<\/p>\n

The four-day visit by a US delegation, including US Ambassador to Denmark Kenneth Howery and Trump\u2019s special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, began on Sunday. The stated goal is to attend a business forum and open a new US consular office in the capital, Nuuk.<\/p>\n

The controversy erupted after physician Joseph Griffin, part of the delegation, told Danish broadcaster TV 2 on Monday that Landry had personally invited him to Nuuk to help \u201cassess the medical needs\u201d<\/em> of Greenland.<\/p>\n

Griffin insisted he was acting as a \u201cvolunteer\u201d<\/em> and planned to speak with Greenlanders to learn \u201chow healthcare is practiced here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Trump sending hospital ship to Greenland \u2018to care for the sick\u2019<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Health Minister Anna Wangenheim called Griffin\u2019s presence \u201cdeeply problematic.\u201d<\/em> In a social media post on Monday, she insisted that \u201cGreenlanders are not guinea pigs in a geopolitical project.\u201d<\/em> While acknowledging \u201cchronic\u201d<\/em> staff shortages, she warned against developing Greenland\u2019s healthcare system \u201cthrough political envoys with hidden strategic interests.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Landry has become a controversial figure in Greenland after repeatedly criticizing the island\u2019s healthcare system and backing Trump\u2019s February proposal to send a US hospital ship to the territory, a plan firmly rejected by officials in Nuuk.<\/p>\n

He also previously vowed to be \u201cvery aggressive in delivering healthcare to remote parts\u201d<\/em> of the island, while stating that the hospital ship proposal had been discussed with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

The dispute comes amid Trump\u2019s push to bring Greenland under greater US control, supposedly on national security grounds. The president has described the mineral-rich Arctic territory as strategically vital for countering Russia and China, while White House officials earlier this year said military force to acquire the island was \u201calways an option.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In an apparent snub to the US delegation, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has refused to participate in the opening of the new US consulate.<\/p>\n

\n
\n READ MORE: <\/span>Danish PM\u2019s party suffers worst election result in over a century \u2013 exit polls
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Healthcare remains politically sensitive in Greenland because of abuses committed during Danish colonial rule. Last year, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen formally apologized over the so-called IUD scandal, in which thousands of Greenlandic women and girls were reportedly fitted with contraceptive devices without their knowledge or consent in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US-proposed assessment of the island\u2019s healthcare system is \u201cdeeply problematic,\u201d Anna Wangenheim has said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}