Trump's anger toward World Health Organization may reshape global health, politics [View all]

[Zorro]

Public health experts say the United States’ departure could cripple the WHO’s operations or leave an opening for China to assume greater control over the agency.

For five years, Donald Trump has blamed an arm of the United Nations for fueling the coronavirus pandemic that helped end his first presidency.

“The World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves, because they’re like the public relations agency for China,” Trump seethed in April 2020, alleging that the WHO helped cover up the origins and spread of the virus. One month later, Trump announced that the United States would become the first nation to withdraw from the preeminent global health alliance — a decision that his successor, Joe Biden, reversed when he took office in January 2021.

Now Trump is again pulling out of the WHO, signing an executive order Monday that immediately terminates America’s commitment to the organization. The decision has alarmed WHO allies, who dispute Trump’s characterization and say that the global health group worked diligently to combat an unprecedented threat. WHO leaders also insist that there is time to negotiate the U.S. departure, pointing to a one-year formal process to withdraw from the organization.

“We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue,” the WHO said in a statement.

But after years of grievances, including his complaints over the cost of participating, it is not clear that Trump can be persuaded to rejoin the WHO. Public health experts say the nation’s departure could cripple the WHO’s operations — the United States is responsible for nearly 20 percent of its funding — or leave an opening for China to assume greater control over the agency that helps coordinate the response to international health crises.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/23/trump-world-health-organization/

Making America great by ceding influence and control of international organizations to China...