President Trump moved quickly on Monday to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, a move that public health experts say undermines the country’s position as a global health leader and undermines its ability to fight the next pandemic. They claim it will make it difficult.
In an executive order issued about eight hours after taking the oath of office, Trump cited a number of reasons for his withdrawal, including the WHO statement. These are the “mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic” and the “failure to introduce urgently needed reforms.” He said authorities were demanding “unreasonably burdensome payments” from the United States and complained that China was paying less.
This move was not unexpected. Trump has slammed the WHO since 2020, when he attacked it over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and threatened to withhold U.S. funding. In July 2020, Trump took formal steps to withdraw from the agency.
However, that threat did not materialize after he lost the 2020 election. On his first day in office, January 20, 2021, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. blocked the bill from taking effect.
Leaving the WHO would mean, among other things, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer have access to the global data the agency provides. When China sequenced the novel coronavirus in 2020, it released that information to the WHO, which then shared it with other countries.
Recently, the WHO has strengthened pandemic preparedness and established legally binding policies for member states on pathogen surveillance, rapid sharing of outbreak data, and strengthening local manufacturing and supply. The country has become a target of conservatives over the development of a “pandemic treaty.” Especially the vaccine and therapeutic drug chain.
Negotiations on the treaty broke down last year. In the United States, some Republican lawmakers saw the deal as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University who helped negotiate the treaty, said that while the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO was a “serious blow” to public health, it was “a major blow to U.S. national interests and national security.” It will cause an even deeper wound.” ”
The World Health Organization was established in 1948 with assistance from the United States and is an agency of the United Nations. Its mission is to “confront the greatest health challenges of our time and measurably advance the well-being of people around the world,” according to its website.
This includes providing aid to war-torn areas like Gaza and tracking emerging infectious diseases such as Zika, Ebola and COVID-19. WHO’s annual budget is approximately $6.8 billion. The US typically has a large share.
Gostin says it will take some time for the U.S. to withdraw. A joint resolution adopted by Congress at the time of the agency’s creation addresses the possibility of withdrawal and requires the United States to give one year’s notice and pay its financial obligations to the agency for the current fiscal year. .
