The Trump administration has made good on its promise to withdraw the United States from the world’s leading global health organization. The long-expected move comes despite criticism and grave warnings from medical experts and public health officials, who worry that the move could leave the United States and other countries more vulnerable to diseases ranging from new flu strains to novel viruses that could potentially create another global pandemic.
RFK Jr. and Marco Rubio blame ‘WHO’s failures’ for the U.S. withdrawal
The Trump administration announced Thursday that the United States has formally withdrawn from the World Health Organization. In a joint statement by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the two officials claimed, “This action responds to the WHO’s failures during the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to rectify the harm from those failures inflicted on the American people” and claimed, “Like many international organizations, the WHO abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States.” The statement specified, “Going forward, U.S. engagement with the WHO will be limited strictly to effectuate our withdrawal and to safeguard the health and safety of the American people,” and declared, “All U.S. funding for, and staffing of, WHO initiatives has ceased.” The move by the Trump administration had been expected.
As Blavity reported, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office that announced the United States would withdraw from the WHO, part of a larger agenda of pulling away from international organizations.
Experts bemoan withdrawal as ‘an act of monumental stupidity’
Nevertheless, public health officials have warned that the move will complicate efforts to coordinate vaccines and responses to global health challenges like influenza. Jesse Bump, a global health researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, described the withdrawal as “an act of monumental stupidity,” noting that the United States is giving up access to over 100 WHO-affiliated labs worldwide.
Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, posted on Threads, “As of today, the United States has officially left the World Health Organization. We’ll look back on this as a grave error.” Frieden added, “Health threats do not respect borders, and weakening global cooperation makes Americans less safe.”
Unclear path for coordination on influenza and other global health concerns
As The New York Times reported, the withdrawal means that the United States has ended federal funding for the WHO and recalled all American federal workers and contractors from WHO offices around the world, including the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. However, the Trump administration has left the door open for some types of limited cooperation with the WHO. However, the nature of future coordination between the United States and the WHO is uncertain. Notably, it is unclear if the United States will participate in the annual meeting of experts held by the WHO to determine the content of the following year’s flu vaccines. This year’s meeting is scheduled for February.
If the United States does not attend next month’s flu meeting, the lack of cooperation could have deadly consequences for people in the U.S. and around the world. More broadly, experts warn that the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO will leave the country and the worldwide community less prepared for future global health crises, a concern that has not swayed the Trump administration.