New York: Will the United States withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO)? Speculations are on as Donald Trump is all set to take office in January. According to reports, members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the US to withdraw from the WHO on the first day of Trump’s second term. This was reported by Reuters, quoting a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
“I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, told Reuters. However, the Trump transition team did not make any statement in this regard thus far.
Earlier, Trump had criticized the UN health agency. If US withdraws from the WHO, it will be a major US global health policy shift and may isolate the country from the global efforts in fighting pandemics.
What are the possible indications of the withdrawal?
Trump has nominated several critics of the WHO to top public health positions. This includes the vaccine skeptic, Robert F Kennedy Jr., who has been chosen for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services. This department oversees all major US health agencies. The speculations are rife more so because Trump had initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020. But six months later President Joe Biden reversed his decision. Trump had argued that WHO had failed to hold China accountable for the early transmission of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing. He had also promised to redirect US contributions to domestic health initiatives.
Earlier at a press conference on December 10, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing voiced confidence that US could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025. But, if US withdraws from WHO, experts and critics claimed that it could undermine global disease vigil and emergency response systems.
