As we speak the US formally withdrew from the World Well being Group (WHO), one yr after the Trump administration shared its intention to depart the worldwide company.
At the moment, the US was stated to offer about 20% of the WHO’s operational funds, however this week WHO officers stated the US has did not pay membership dues for each 2024 and 2025, leaving the worldwide alliance with a $278 million debt.
The WHO says withdrawal just isn’t full till the US pays its money owed.
“The US is not going to be making any funds to the WHO earlier than our withdrawal,” the State Division instructed NPR in a press release earlier this week. “The price born by the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. financial system after the WHO’s failure through the Covid pandemic—and since—has been too excessive as it’s.”
The US is the one nation to have withdrawn from the WHO since its founding 1948. Throughout his inauguration final yr, President Donald Trump stated the WHO had gouged the US, and he blamed the company for overlaying up China’s position within the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump had additionally tried to depart the WHO throughout his first presidential time period, after the pandemic started, however President Joe Biden reversed that plan on his first day of workplace in 2020.
WHO bylaws require nations to offer a one-year advance discover of withdrawal and to settle all money owed earlier than the exit is full.
IDSA says transfer is shortsighted
As we speak the Infectious Illnesses Society of America (IDSA) stated the transfer will jeopardize virus surveillance for the US.
By withdrawing from WHO, the U.S. will now not take part within the International Influenza Surveillance and Response System, the very important platform for monitoring flu instances and sharing information and viral samples used to develop yearly flu vaccines
“The U.S. withdrawal from the World Well being Group is a shortsighted and misguided abandonment of our world well being commitments,” IDSA President Ronald G. Nahass, MD, stated in a press release. “Whether or not dealing with rising threats like Ebola or the persistent burden of annual flu outbreaks, worldwide monitoring is important. By withdrawing from WHO, the U.S. will now not take part within the International Influenza Surveillance and Response System, the very important platform for monitoring flu instances and sharing information and viral samples used to develop yearly flu vaccines. This may severely hamper efforts to match vaccines to circulating strains of flu.”
Additionally immediately, Docs With out Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) criticized the Trump administration for its previous yr of withdrawing overseas support from plenty of companies. The group additionally stated the America First International Well being program unveiled by the White Home in September 2025 does little to handle sexual and reproductive well being, diet, and non-communicable illnesses.
Furthermore, the America First technique is brazenly transactional, MSF stated.
“The declare that these agreements advance nationwide possession rings hole when, on the similar time, you will have State Division officers brazenly telling international locations that world well being help is contingent on their willingness to strike a minerals take care of the US,” stated Mihir Mankad, MPA, MBA, world well being advocacy and coverage director at MSF USA.
