NEW YORK, Jan 21: President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the United States will exit the World Health Organization, citing the agency’s failure to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises.
Trump criticized the WHO for acting under the “inappropriate political influence” of member states and for imposing “unfairly onerous payments” on the U.S., which he claimed are disproportionate compared to contributions from other larger countries, including China.
“The World Health Organization ripped us off; everyone rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump stated during the signing.
This decision means that the U.S. will officially leave the UN health agency in a year and will cease all financial contributions to its operations. The U.S. is, by a significant margin, the largest financial contributor to the WHO, providing about 18% of its total funding. The agency’s latest budget for the 2024-2025 period was set at $6.8 billion.
Trump’s move to withdraw from the WHO was anticipated, given previous actions taken in 2020 during his first term when he accused the WHO of supporting China’s attempts to “mislead the world” regarding the origins of COVID.
The WHO has consistently denied these allegations and asserts its ongoing efforts to urge Beijing to provide data to clarify whether the virus originated from human-animal contact or from research in a domestic laboratory. (Agencies)
