US officially leaves World Health Organization
The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving the UN agency without one of its largest donors.
US President Donald Trump criticized the organization for being too “China-centric” during the Covid outbreak and signed an executive order signaling the withdrawal a year ago.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said it made this decision due to the WHO’s alleged “mismanagement” of the epidemic, its failure to reform and the political influence of member states.
WHO has denied these allegations, and its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the withdrawal was a loss for the United States and the world.
The organization highlighted its global efforts to fight polio, HIV aid, maternal mortality and its international agreement on tobacco control.
In the wake of the pandemic, WHO member states worked to create an international pandemic agreement designed to prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics, including more equitable sharing of vaccines and medicines.
The agreement was finally adopted by all WHO member states except the United States in April last year.
Washington has traditionally been one of the WHO’s biggest donors, but has not paid its dues for 2024 and 2025; This has already caused major job losses in the organization.
Although WHO lawyers argued the US had to pay debts estimated at $260 million (£193 million), Washington said it saw no reason to do so.
He said all U.S. government funding to WHO had been terminated, U.S. staff and contractors had been recalled from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and offices around the world, and hundreds of U.S. relationships with WHO had been suspended or terminated.
In a joint statement by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it was said: “WHO has tarnished and thrown away everything America has done for itself.”
The pair said the organization “abandoned its core mission and repeatedly acted against the interests of the United States,” including by not returning an American flag to its headquarters in Geneva.
“Going forward, the United States’ engagement with WHO will be strictly limited to achieve our withdrawal and protect the health and safety of the American people.” they added.
The US department has said it will have bilateral relationships with other countries to provide disease surveillance and pathogen sharing, but has so far been unable to provide information on which countries it has such connections with.
In response to a question about global efforts to combat polio or HIV, officials said the U.S. would partner with “NGOs and faith-based groups” to continue that work, but could not yet provide details of any partnerships established.
Officials were unsure when asked whether the United States would continue to participate in information sharing and development for the annual global flu vaccine.
After Trump signed the withdrawal decision at the beginning of his second term, WHO wrote that it hoped the US would reconsider the decision and said, “WHO and the US have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats.”
It concluded that a reconsideration of the decision would be “in the interest of the health and well-being of millions of people around the world.”
The response to the pandemic by many countries with highly developed healthcare, including the US and also the UK, has been criticized as slow and flawed.
Many governments have hesitated to impose quarantines out of fear that their citizens would not accept such restrictions.
Studies conducted in the wake of the pandemic showed that the delay contributed to the rapid spread of the virus.
The United States had one of the highest death rates, in part due to an uneven response to WHO recommendations for mask-wearing and social distancing, according to Drew Altman, a former U.S. public health official.
In a 2020 article BMJHe accused the then-Trump-led federal administration in Washington of failing to offer national guidance and allowing Covid-19 policy to become politicized, with Democratic-run states mandating mask-wearing while Republican states abandoned social distancing and allowed mass gatherings.
“The disappointing US response to Covid-19 stems from a failure of policy and leadership,” Altman said.
A. research paper The report published in the UN National Library of Medicine also examined the US response to Covid-19 and accused the Trump administration of a “slow and mismanaged federal response.”
