US set to quit World Health Organization
President Donald Trump announced that the United States will leave the organization on the first day of his presidency in 2025. Under US law, he must give one year’s notice and pay all outstanding wages before leaving.
Last year, many global health experts, including most recently WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for a rethink.
“I hope the United States will reconsider and rejoin the WHO,” he told reporters at a news conference earlier this month. “Withdrawing from the WHO is a loss for the United States and a loss for the rest of the world.”
A QUICK RETURN IS UNPOSSIBLE
The WHO also said the US has yet to pay the fees it owes for 2024 and 2025. Member states are preparing to discuss the US departure and how it will be handled at the WHO board in February, a WHO spokesman told Reuters by email.
The US State Department did not respond to questions about whether the United States could leave without paying its dues or what the departure might mean for “global cooperation.”
“This is a clear violation of U.S. law,” said Lawrence Gostin, founding director of the O’Neill Institute for Global Health Law at Georgetown University in Washington, a close observer of the World Health Organization. “But it’s very possible that Trump will get away with it.”
Speaking to Reuters in Davos, Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, a major funder of global health initiatives and some of the WHO’s work, said he did not expect the United States to reconsider in the short term. “I don’t think the United States will return to the WHO in the near future,” he said, adding that he would come when he gets the opportunity to advocate for it. “The world needs the World Health Organization.”
WHAT DOES GOING MEAN?
For the WHO, the US departure sparked a budget crisis that cut its management team in half and scaled back work, cutting budgets across the agency. Washington has traditionally been by far the largest financial supporter of the UN health agency, contributing about 18% of total funding. WHO will also lay off about a quarter of its staff by the middle of this year.
The agency said last year it was working with the United States and sharing information. It was unclear how the collaboration would work going forward.
Global health experts said this poses a risk to the US, WHO and the world.
“A U.S. withdrawal from the WHO could weaken the systems and collaborations the world uses to detect, prevent and respond to health threats,” said Kelly Henning, public health program leader at Bloomberg Philanthropies, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization.
