US President Donald Trump said that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, adding that this organization has mishandled “Covid-19” and other international health crises.
He added that the WHO did not act in isolation from the “inappropriate political influence of its member states” and demanded “unfairly high payments” from the United States that were disproportionate to the amounts provided by other, larger countries such as China.
“The World Health Organization deceived us, and everyone deceived the United States. This will not happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing.
This step means that the United States will leave this international organization within 12 months and will stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is the largest financial supporter of the WHO, contributing about 18% of its total funding. The organization’s latest budget for 2024 and 2025 was $6.8 billion.
Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization is not surprising. He took steps to withdraw from it in 2020, during his first presidential term, accusing it of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origin of Covid.
The WHO strongly denies this allegation, and says it continues to pressure Beijing to share data to determine whether Covid arose from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a local laboratory.
The executive order stated that the United States was withdrawing “due to the organization’s mishandling of COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate its independence from inappropriate political influence by member states.”
He added that the WHO continues to “demand burdensome and unfair payments” from the United States. The order noted that China’s population is 300% of the United States’ population, but it contributes a smaller percentage of 90%.
The executive order indicated that the United States would “as quickly as possible” suspend the transfer of any future government funds, support, or resources to the organization. Washington will also recall and reassign any of its employees or contractors who work with the organization.
There was no immediate comment from the World Health Organization on this step.
The US withdrawal is expected to push global health to undertake a restructuring, and may lead to further disruption of global health initiatives.
The timing of the US withdrawal comes amid growing concerns about the possibility of the current outbreak of the H5N1 avian influenza virus turning into a pandemic, as dozens have been infected and one person has lost his life in the United States.
Meanwhile, WHO member states have been negotiating since late 2021 to draft a first-of-its-kind treaty on epidemic prevention and response, and now negotiations are set to continue without US participation.