“The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed a decree on the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), which may negatively affect the global health system and complicate the fight against future pandemics.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed a decree on the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), which may negatively affect the global health system and complicate the fight against future pandemics.
Source: Trump’s executive order, The New York Times, Reuters
Details: Trump explained his decision by “WHO’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and “the organization’s inability to reform.” Among other reasons, the “unfairly high financial contributions of the United States” compared to other countries, such as China, were cited.
“The World Health Organization robbed us, everyone is robbing the United States. It will not happen again,” Trump said during the signing of the agreement.
The move did not come as a surprise, as Trump has been criticizing the WHO since 2020, accusing the organization of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origin of COVID.
The WHO strongly denies the allegations and says it continues to press Beijing to share data that would help determine whether COVID originated from human contact with infected animals or through research into similar viruses in a Chinese laboratory.
Trump’s decision means that in 12 months the US will withdraw from the United Nations health agency and stop funding its work. The United States is currently the largest financial donor to the WHO, accounting for about 18% of its total funding. The last two-year WHO budget for 2024-2025 was $6.8 billion.
The White House’s co-ordinator of the Covid-19 response during the Biden administration, Dr. Ashish Jha, called President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) a “strategic mistake.”
“The WHO is a pretty important organization, and America’s withdrawal creates a political vacuum that only one country can fill, and that’s China,” Jah said in an interview with CNN.
The decision to withdraw could limit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) access to global data provided by the WHO. For example, in 2020, the WHO shared the genetic sequence of a new coronavirus obtained from China with all member countries.
Republican lawmakers are criticizing the WHO over the organization’s work on a “pandemic compact” designed to strengthen pandemic preparedness and implement legally binding policies for member countries. The document provides for surveillance of pathogens, rapid sharing of data on outbreaks, and development of local production and supply chains for vaccines and medicines.
Republicans see this agreement as a threat to American sovereignty.
Georgetown University public health law expert Lawrence O. Gostin, who negotiated the treaty, said the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO would be a “deep wound” to public health, but “an even deeper wound to American national interests and national security.”
Gostin’s direct speech: “US withdrawal from WHO would be a severe blow to global public health, but an even greater loss to America’s national interests and security.”
Prehistory:
- US President Donald Trump has appointed Marty Macari, a Johns Hopkins University surgeon and writer who opposed quarantine restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, to head the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
- For the post of health minister in his administration, Trump chose Robert Kennedy Jr., who is a staunch anti-vaccinator.
- Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with his anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Protecting Children’s Health, became one of the world’s most powerful promoters of vaccine fear and mistrust.