- Details
- By Elyse Wild
The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State announced yesterday.
In a press release, the HHS noted the reasons for the withdrawal as the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from inappropriate political influence by WHO member states.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a joint statement on the matter.
The statement reads in part:
“Like many international organizations, the WHO abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States. Although the United States was a founding member and the WHO’s largest financial contributor, the organization pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests. In doing so, the WHO obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures under the pretext of acting “in the interest of public health.”'
The exit from the organization has been a year in the making; President Trump, on January 20, 2025, announced the U.S. plan to leave the WHO.
During the year-long process, the U.S. stopped funding the WHO, withdrew all personnel from the organization, and began pivoting activities previously conducted with the WHO toward bilateral engagements with other countries and organizations. The U.S. was the largest contributor to the organization, providing $1.284 billion from 2022-2023.
The announcement from HHS alleges that the WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread. The viral infection was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It quickly spread worldwide, and on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the virus a global pandemic.
During the pandemic, American Indians and Alaska Native died from COVID-19 more than any other demographic, so much so that the virus lowered the Native American average life span from 71.8 years to 65.2 years.
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