Donald Trump, newly innaugurated president of the United States has announced that he is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Trump also signed an executive order pausing foreign development assistance for 90 days pending a review.
In his text on Monday, he cited the WHo’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,” as reasons for the US withdrawal.
Read also: World leaders congratulate Donald Trump on inauguration
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S. that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing of an executive order on the withdrawal, shortly after his inauguration to a second term’, he said.
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 US is the WHO’s biggest donor, contributing around 18% of its overall funding. WHO’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.
The move means the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work. Experts agree its exit would be a blow for the Geneva agency and the health of the world more broadly.
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