New York, January 21 (IANS). President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he was withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. This is a significant step, as he severed ties with the UN public health agency on his first day in office.
Trump has long been critical of the WHO, and his administration formally withdrew from the organization in July 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading.
The executive order cited “the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises that originated in Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and inappropriate political behavior by WHO member states” as reasons for the US withdrawal. Its inability to demonstrate independence from influence” has been cited.
“This is a big deal,” Trump told an aide as he signed the executive order.
He pointed to his 2020 decision and said he believed the US was giving too much money to the organization compared to other countries.
The order also said that WHO continues to demand unreasonably huge payments from the US.
This is in line with Trump’s long-standing criticism of the UN health agency. The move would mark a dramatic shift in US global health policy and isolate Washington from international efforts to fight the pandemic.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health posts, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and is a candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major US health agencies, including the FDA and CDC.
Trump began the year-long withdrawal process from WHO in 2020, but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
The US President has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the initial spread of Covid-19. He has repeatedly called WHO a puppet of Beijing.
A WHO spokesperson declined to comment directly, but referred to comments made to the media by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on 10 December, in which he was asked whether he was concerned about That the Trump administration will withdraw from the organization.
Tedros said at the time that WHO needed to give the US time and space for change. He also expressed confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.
Critics have warned that a US withdrawal could weaken the global disease surveillance and emergency response system.
–IANS
AKS/AS
