The World Health Organization (WHO).
Credit: Reuters Photo
The United States on Thursday completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
The White House said that the move comes against the backdrop of the body's mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, faliure to adopt to urgent reforms and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a joint statement on the termination the membership.
On January 2025, President Trump had announced his plan to exit the WHO.
"During the yearlong process, the U.S. stopped funding WHO, withdrew all personnel from WHO, and began pivoting activities previously conducted with WHO to direct bilateral engagements with other countries and organizations," the White House said in a statement.
It added that the only coordination with WHO going forward will be with regard to effectuate the withdrawal.
"The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread," the statement read.
'WHO failed during COVID-19 pandemic'
The White House said that the WHO leadership instead praised China's response to the deadly virus despite evidence of underreporting. suppression of information and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission.
The US also accused WHO of downplaying asymptomatic transmission risks and failed to promptly acknowledge airborne spread.
It further alleged that the health body did not make reforms to address political influence, weaknesses in governance and coordination.
The White House said that the US government will, however, continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and faith-based entities.
"US-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world," the statement said.
WHO expresses concern
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the US to reconsider the decision. “It’s a loss for the United States, and it’s a loss for the rest of the world,” he said.
The body said that the loss of US funding will force it to make deep cuts, while up to a quarter of its workforce could be laid off in the coming months.