U.S. Announces Complete Withdrawal From WHO

The United States said it has completed the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the agency of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, failing to carry out internal reforms, and being susceptible to “political influence” from some member states, Kyodo News reported.

The WHO stated that the US has not yet paid its 2024 and 2025 fees, totaling around $260 million, and Trump has indicated he is not inclined to pay them. (Photo: Yann, Wikimedia Commons) 

In his inaugural address on Jan. 20 last year, President Donald Trump directed the US to leave the UN health body in line with a pre-election pledge, as well as to exit the Paris climate agreement, as it had previously done under his first administration.

The withdrawal, reflecting Trump’s general skepticism of multilateralism, will likely have negative consequences for global efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases.

For decades, the US was the largest financial contributor to the WHO, a Geneva-based organization of more than 190 member states tasked with formulating coherent global health policy, Mainichi Japan also reported.

According to the agency, the US has not yet paid its 2024 and 2025 fees, totaling around $260 million, and Trump has indicated he is not inclined to pay them.

US researchers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have played a central role in global efforts to combat infectious diseases.

However, the Trump administration said it had, within one year, stopped funding the WHO, withdrawn all US officials, and begun shifting activities previously conducted with the agency to “bilateral engagements” with other countries or institutions.

From now on, the United States will cooperate with the WHO “solely in a limited fashion to effectuate our withdrawal,” the administration said.

“Like many international organizations, the WHO abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the US,” said a joint statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.