US withdraws from the World Health Organization
Under US law, it was supposed to give one-year notice and pay all outstanding fees - around $260 million - before departing.
Highlights
- US owes WHO $260 million in fees
- WHO faces budget crisis, staff cuts linked to US exit
- US official says country does not intend to return to WHO
- Global health experts urge re-think
The United States officially left the World Health Organization on Thursday (22 January) after a year of warnings that doing so would hurt public health in the US and globally, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency's management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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President Donald Trump gave notice that the US would quit the organization on the first day of his presidency in 2025, via an executive order. According to a press release from the US Health and State Departments, the US will only work with the WHO in a limited fashion in order to effectuate the withdrawal.
"We have no plans to participate as an observer, and we have no plans of rejoining," a senior government health official said. The US said it plans to work directly with other countries - rather than through an international organization - on disease surveillance and other public health priorities.
Dispute over us-owed fees
Under US law, it was supposed to give one-year notice and pay all outstanding fees - around $260 million - before departing.
But a US State Department official disputed that the statute contains a condition that any payment needs to be made before withdrawal. "The American people have paid more than enough," a State Department spokesperson said in an email earlier on Thursday (22 January).
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a document released on Thursday (22 January) that the government had ended its funding contributions to the agency. Trump had exercised his authority to pause the future transfer of any US government resources to the WHO because the organization had cost the US trillions of dollars, the HHS spokesperson said.
The US flag had been removed from outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday (22 January), according to witnesses.
In recent weeks, the US has moved to exit a number of other United Nations organizations, and some fear that Trump's recently launched Board of Peace could undermine the UN as a whole.
Several WHO critics have also proposed setting up a new agency to replace the organization, although a proposal document reviewed by the Trump administration last year instead suggested the US push for reforms and American leadership at WHO.
Quick return unlikely
Over the last year, many global health experts have urged a rethink, including most recently WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO also said the US has not yet paid the fees it owes for 2024 and 2025. Member states are set to discuss the US departure and how it will be handled at the WHO's executive board in February, a WHO spokesperson said.
"This is a clear violation of US law," said Lawrence Gostin, founding director of the O'Neill Institute for Global Health Law at Georgetown University in Washington, a close observer of the WHO. "But Trump is highly likely to get away with it."
Bill Gates – chair of the Gates Foundation, a major funder of global health initiatives and some of the WHO's work – told Reuters at Davos that he did not expect the US to reconsider in the short term.
