The United States has formally withdrawn from the World Health Organization, fulfilling a pledge made by President Donald Trump on his first day in office and marking a major shift in Washington’s approach to global health governance.
In a joint statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr said the decision was driven by what they described as the WHO’s failures during the Covid 19 pandemic and the harm those failures caused to the American people. They said the withdrawal frees the United States from constraints imposed by an organization they argue no longer serves its founding purpose.
The two officials accused the WHO of abandoning its core mission and acting against US interests. Although the United States was a founding member and the organization’s largest financial contributor, they said the WHO had pursued what they described as a politicized and bureaucratic agenda shaped by countries hostile to American priorities.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and later a pandemic during the early stages of Covid 19, costing the world critical time as the virus spread. US officials also criticized the organization for praising China’s response in the early months of the outbreak despite evidence of underreporting, suppression of information and delays in confirming human to human transmission. They further argued that the WHO downplayed the risks of asymptomatic transmission and failed to promptly acknowledge airborne spread.
Rubio and Kennedy also accused the organization of continuing what they called disrespect toward the United States even after the decision to withdraw. They said the WHO had refused to return the American flag that hung outside its headquarters, arguing that the organization had not approved the US withdrawal and claiming Washington owed compensation.
They said future engagement with the WHO would be limited strictly to managing the withdrawal process and protecting the health and safety of Americans. All US funding for WHO programs and all US staffing of WHO initiatives have now ceased.
The administration said the United States would continue to play a leading role in global public health through direct and bilateral partnerships and cooperation with trusted health institutions. Officials said this approach would focus on concrete results rather than what they described as an inefficient and bloated international bureaucracy.
Rubio and Kennedy said the withdrawal was intended to address what they called deep rooted problems within the WHO, including bureaucratic inertia, conflicts of interest and international politics that they believe have rendered the organization beyond repair.
They framed the move as an act taken on behalf of Americans who suffered during the pandemic, including elderly people who died in isolation, small business owners whose livelihoods were destroyed by restrictions and families whose lives were disrupted by what they described as the organization’s inaction.
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