Trump Withdraws U.S. from WHO

On Jan. 20, President Trump announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to an article from CNN, “Trump has long been critical of the United Nations’ health agency, and his administration formally began a withdrawal from the WHO in July 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread. But four years ago, then-President Joe Biden halted the US’ exit from the body tasked with coordinating the international response to health emergencies in one of his first actions after taking over the White House.”

The text in the executive order stated, “The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.  In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.  China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO.”

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., M.P.H., who served as White House COVID-19 response coordinator during the Biden administration, said in an interview to CNN, “WHO is a pretty essential organization—and with America’s withdrawal, it creates a political vacuum that only one country can fill—and that is China.”