Trump orders the United States to leave the World Health Organization – National

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, saying that the World Health Organization has mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

Trump said the WHO failed to act independently of “inappropriate political influence by WHO member states” and requested “unfairly exorbitant payments” from the United States that were disproportionate to amounts made by other, larger countries, such as China.

“World Health deceived us, everyone deceived the United States. “It will not happen anymore,” Trump said when signing an executive order on the withdrawal, shortly after his inauguration for a second term.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it regretted the step taken by its largest donor country.

“We hope that the United States will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be a constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans but also for people around the world,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

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The move sets a 12-month notice period for the United States to leave the UN health agency and cease all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the largest financial supporter of the WHO, contributing about 18 percent of its total funding. The WHO’s latest budget for the two years, 2024-2025, was US$6.8 billion.

The US departure is likely to jeopardize programs across the organization, according to many experts inside and outside the WHO, particularly those that address tuberculosis, the world’s biggest killer infectious disease, as well as HIV/AIDS and emergency situations. Other health.

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“This is the darkest day I have ever seen for global health,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “Trump could sow the seeds of the next pandemic.”


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Coronavirus outbreak: Trump ends his relationship with the World Health Organization


Trump’s order stated that the administration would halt negotiations on the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty during the withdrawal process. US government employees working with the World Health Organization will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will seek partners to assume necessary activities for the World Health Organization, according to the order.

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The order stated that the government will review, cancel and replace the US 2024 Global Health Security Strategy as soon as possible.

The second largest donor to the WHO is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, although most of this funding goes to polio eradication. Its CEO, Mark Suzman, said on Channel X that the foundation would continue to champion the cause of strengthening the WHO, not weakening it. The second largest donor country in terms of combined mandatory fees and voluntary contributions is Germany, which accounts for about three percent of WHO funding.

The German Health Minister said on Tuesday that Berlin hopes to persuade Trump to reverse the move, while the European Union expressed concern.


When asked about Trump’s decision, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said at a regular press conference on Tuesday that the WHO’s role in global health management should only be strengthened, not weakened.

“China will continue to support the World Health Organization in fulfilling its responsibilities and deepen international cooperation in the field of public health,” said Guo Jiaqun, spokesman for the ministry.

Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization is not unexpected. He took steps to withdraw from the organization in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization strongly denies this allegation and says it continues to pressure Beijing to share data to determine whether the Coronavirus emerged as a result of human contact with infected animals or due to research on similar viruses in a local laboratory.

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Under US law, leaving the WHO requires a one-year notice period and the payment of any outstanding fees. Before the US withdrawal was completed for the last time, Joe Biden won the presidential elections and stopped them on his first day in office on January 20, 2021.

Reporting by Patrick Wingrove, Jennifer Rigby and Emma Farge. Reporting by Mohamed. (Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Lewis Jackson in Beijing – Prepared by Mohammed for the Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Saad Saeed, Kate Mayberry and Thomas Janowski

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